After receiving a tip-off that a white Maruti car was suspiciously moving around Goregaon, a police team comprising assistant commissioner of police Gaikwad and police inspectors Musa Shaikh, Nitin Vichare and Sunil Gharekar launced a search for the car.

When the police came across the car at New Link Road, they tried to intercept it, but the Maruti sped past them.

When the Maruti passed through Bangur Nagar and suddenly halted behind the Laxmi Nagar slums, the police party surrounded it and ordered its occupants to surrender.

However, four unidentified men came out of the car and began running, while Nadar whipped out a revolver and opened fire at the police. He fired three rounds, and the police fired in retaliation. An injured Nadar was then rushed to Bhagwati Hospital, where he was declared dead before admission.

His three associates, however,managed to escape from the scene.

Nadar, who owed allegiance to the Nadar gang, had been involved in several robberies, especially in north-west Mumbai. He has several cases registered against him at the Juhu and Andheri police stations. The police had been on the look-out for him for a long time, but he had so far successfully managed to escape the police dragnet.

The police have seized one .32 revolver, 12 soda bottles, six choppers and two mobile phones from the car.