The city police on Wednesday slapped the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999, on the five arrested suspects in connection with the murder of hotel owner Baiju alias Pramod Baban Navghane (26) at Balajinagar in Dhankavdi on October 21.
The five suspects are Datta Balu Mane (24), Kailas Mahadev Mane (22), Somnath Balu Mane (29), Swapnil alias Chocolate Satish Modwe (21) and Tabrej Mehmood Sutar (29).
The other 15 suspects, including Bapu Prabhakar Nair and Nilesh Sriniwas Baswant, are at large. The minister of state for home, Satej Patil, had directed the city police to apply the Act on all suspects.
They were produced before the district and sessions court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till November 10.
Assistant commissioner of police (Swargate division), Abhay Yewale, who is the investigating officer, told the court that the suspects have already been charge-sheeted for various crimes in the district court.
“The investigating team needs to find out whether the gang, through its organised structure, amassed property and, if so, what are the locations,” Yewale told the court, adding that the other suspects who are on the run need to be arrested.
Navghane, a member of the Ganaraj group, was murdered by members of a rival group led by Datta Mane for not paying hafta (protection money).
The suspects have been charged with murder, rioting, unlawful assembly and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Bombay Police Act, 1951. They also damaged 55 vehicles after murdering Navghane and fled.
Pune police commissioner, Meeran Chadha Borwankar, had visited the area last Saturday. Nationalist Congress Party MP, Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe, and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Bhimrao Tapkir had demanded action against the culprits.
