Gujarat Police nab D-gang shooters

The Gujarat Police on Saturday arrested four sharp-shooters reportedly close to the Dawood Ibrahim gang from the outskirts of Rajkot city who were allegedly on their way to eliminate a Jamnagar-based businessman.

Police sources claimed they were on the assignment on the instructions of the Pakistan-based underworld don's brother Anees Ibrahim, who too is in the neighbouring country.

Anees had contracted them to kill Jamnagar businessman Ashfaq Khatri, who is into shipping trade. Rajkot Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) S.R. Odedara said one Ramdas Rahane and three others were to be paid Rs 10 lakh for the killing.

He said Rahane and his accomplices were coming to Rajkot in a private bus on their way to Jamnagar when they were intercepted.

"We kept a close vigil near Kuvadava town on Rajkot-Ahmedabad national highway, as we had received inputs that four suspicious persons are travelling in a private bus from Maharashtra," he told reporters here.

Police found them in the bus behaving in a suspicious manner. On searching their bags, a pistol, six live cartridges, two knives and fake number plates bearing vehicle registration numbers of GJ (Gujarat) and MH (Maharashtra) series were found.

"During the initial interrogation we learnt that Anees Ibrahim had given a contract to kill the businessman to Ramdas for a payment of Rs 10 lakh," Odedara said, adding that Rahane was a contract killer of the Dawood gang and facing several criminal charges in Maharashtra.

"It was also revealed during interrogation that they had planned to steal a vehicle after reaching Jamnagar, change the number plates with fake ones which they were carrying and execute the crime, before returning to Maharashtra," Rajkot Police Commissioner Anupamsinh Gehlot, who oversaw the entire operation, said.

The names of three others, arrested with Rahane, were not disclosed. Police sources the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad would also interrogate the four.

--IANA

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