Four held for firing at Arihant builder

Crime Branch officials with anti-extortion cell and anti-motor theft cell on Tuesday arrested four persons in connection with the Chunabhatti firing. The arrested accused identified as Raju Karausi (26), Vinod Vishwakarma (27), Tufankumar Gupta (21) and Sumit Yerunkar (38) are repeat offenders and have been previously arrested in extortion and half murder cases.

On Friday evening, a 30-year-old partner with Arihant Builders, Jinesh Jain (30) was shot outside his office in Chunabhatti by two unidentified assailants. Even as Chunabhatti police started investigations, crime branch officials began parallel investigations into the incident.

After immediately visiting the site and retrieving all CCTV footage from nearby areas and inside the office, officials noticed that the accused had escaped in a white coloured car. After interrogating over 25 persons, they realised that the accused was a repeat offender. Mr Jain’s father informed that a few months ago, some people had approached his son for a business deal which he refused.

“We got some clue after receiving information about the accused. Our team laid a trap at the said place and three persons were nabbed after two days. Two of the accused are residents of Ulhas Nagar and one is from Dombivali. We also retrieved a 9 mm pistol with seven rounds, one 7.65mm pistol with six live rounds, two factory-made Kattas, '1.35 lakh in cash, mobile phones and other personal articles,” said senior PI Vinayak Vast.

Yerunkar is a repeat offender with two murder cases and two Arms Act cases as well as two robbery and dacoity cases against him. He was behind the murder of Ajay Thakur of Uran in 2011 along with six of his associates. He has been sentenced to life but is temporarily out on bail till March 4 on grounds of his wife’s delivery. Yerunkar is the brain behind the Chunabhatti firing, police sources said. He wanted to create a reign of terror in the locality, especially for builders, they said. Earlier, he had approached Mr Jain for a contract to supply building material to Mr Jain’s site at Chunabhatti. Mr Jain did not pay heed so when Yerunkar came out on bail, he decided to teach Mr Jain a lesson. He approached Vishwakarma who he had met in jail and called all his other friends.

The incident occurred at 7:00 pm on Friday outside Mr Jain’s office. Mr Jain was entering his office on Friday evening when two accused, who had covered their faces, walked up to him and fired two rounds at him from behind before fleeing the scene. Mr Jain sustained two bullet injuries, one in the shoulder and the other in the back. He is recovering.