Mumbai's 3rd most wanted gangster shot dead

Mumbai's 3rd most wanted gangster shot dead
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, JUNE 5: Making it the third hit in 10 days, the Mumbai police shot dead one more among the 10 most wanted gangsters in the city today. Mohammed Sheikh, a key associate of the Bahrain-based underworld don Ali Budesh, was killed in an exchange of fire with the police at Santacruz (W) at around 9.30 am. A hitman in the attempt on the life of actor Rakesh Roshan on January 21 and an accused in the kidnapping of Milton Plastics director Chiranjeev Vachani on February 23, Sheikh was shot dead when he arrived on a motorcycle to kill a businessman near Asha Parekh hospital.

The other two slain gangsters on the `most-wanted list' are Chhota Shakeel hitmen Nilesh Kokam and Chand Mastan Sheikh, who were killed on May 26.

Sheikh's other victims include the manager of Copper Chimney who was shot dead at Sakinaka, builder Ziauddin Sheikh at Vikhroli Park Site and Sai Prakash Shetty at Malvani. There were cases pending against him at Navsari and Surat in Gujarat and Karnataka among 60 other cases related to serious offences.

The gangster is believed to have demanded Rs 7 crore after kidnapping Bangalore-based businessman Vineet Vachani who was in his custody for over 15 days. Vachani was released after coughing up around Rs 60 lakh. Sheikh had also kidnapped a Kannada newspaper editor Jairam Alwa from near Mangalore last year. He too had to pay a hefty ransom.

Sheikh, alias Rafique Dabawalla alias Harish Thakur alias Rafique Tiffin earned his last nickname as he used to supply packaged lunches to the accused in the J J Hospital shootout case and notorious gangsters Subashsingh Thakur and Shamkishore Garikapatti. He soon graduated to being a hitman and joined the ranks of Budesh.

In fact, Budesh, Garikapatti and Sheikh once lived near a darga at Ghatkopar and were initiated to crime in 1990. Budesh later migrated to Bahrain.

Today's hit was executed by a squad lead by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pradip Sawant and including Assistant Police Inspectors Pradeep Sharma and Arun Borude and Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak.