Three days after the main accused in Sanpada firing case was arrested, the shooter who shot at the contractor, too has been nabbed. The main accused Santosh Gawli (35), had issues with the contractor Rajaram Dhoke (48), ever since he grabbed the contract of waste disposal of APMC market which was with Gawli earlier. Since six months Gawli has been hatching a plan to assassinate Dhoke, along with his friend shooter Imran Mulla Qureshi (42). Qureshi, a member of DK Rao Gang had met Gawli in jail wherein both were under trial for two different cases.
Around two years back, Gawli handled the contract of waste disposal from APMC market which was then grabbed by Thoke. Gawli not only lost the contract but also felt humiliated as the labourers no more gave him respect in the market. To earn a living, Gawli had started driving auto rickshaw. “The deal between GAwli and Qureshi was that once Thoke is killed, Gawli would get the contract and then he would share the money with Qureshi as well” a police officer privy to the investigations said.
On January 3 morning, while Thoke was seated in his parked car near Juinagar Railway Station waiting for his two friends who were having tea at a nearby tea stall, Gawli and Qureshi on a bike approached Thoke. While Gawli was riding, Qureshi with a 9mm pistol, was a pillion rider. Queshi shot five rounds of which three hit Thoke on hand, shoulder and stomach. Thoke survived the attacked and was admitted to hospital.
After the attack, Gawli and Thoke went to Pune and they parted ways. While Gawli was nabbed on Saturday from a lodge, Qureshi was nabbed on Tuesday from a Durgah premises. “We have recovered the 9mm pistol from the custody of Qureshi,” the officer added. Both the accused have been remanded to police custody till January 17 and the further investigations are on by Sanpada police wherein the case was registered.
