By IANS,
Mumbai : Underworld don-turned-legislator Arun Gawli was Tuesday booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on the charge of extorting money from realty developers.
Simultaneously, Mumbai Police have unearthed evidence of the involvement of Gawli’s associates in the March 2, 2007 killing of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar in Andheri, north-west Mumbai.
Gawli, who was arrested April 21 in connection with the same case, was produced before a court which has remanded him and seven of his accomplices under MCOCA to police custody till May 14.
Besides Gawli, a legislator representing the Chinchpokli constituency in south-central Mumbai, the other accused are his brother Vijay Ahire, Dinesh Narkar, Mohammed Qureshi, Sudhir Ghorpade, Ajit Rane, Shrikrishna Gurav and Sanjay Kambli.
The police contend that the plot to kill Jamsandekar was hatched in Gawli’s fortress-like bastion, Dagdi Chawl, though his direct involvement remains to be established.
Gawli, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS), was elected to the Maharashtra assembly by a handsome margin in the last elections in 2004, securing over 92,000 votes.