Gangster Kumar Pillai on Tuesday was remanded to police custody till July 7. Pillai, who was wanted for 17 years, was brought to the city late on Monday night by a team of crime branch officials.
Gangster Kumar Pillai on Tuesday was remanded to police custody till July 7. Pillai, who was wanted for 17 years, was brought to the city late on Monday night by a team of crime branch officials. He was extradited from Singapore and arrested in January this year.
Wanted for several crimes in the city, especially in the Vikhroli-Kanjurmarg belt, Pillai, escaped from the country in 1997. There were rumours that he had settled in Singapore but officials had no leads and in 2012, a non-bailable warrant was issued against him and later, a red corner notice as well.
Crime branch sources said that getting Pillai extradited from Singapore was an uphill task mainly because of the citizenship acquired by him. “The court which heard our case was reluctant to hand over a citizen. They wanted ample evidence to allow us to take him back,” sources revealed. So, crime branch officials started building a foolproof case against him after his arrest.
“We looked up his birth certificate, a copy of the voters’ list from 1990s, which had his name and date of birth. This helped us prove to the Court that the Singaporean citizen known as Krishnan Pillai was actually Kumar Krishna Pillai from India,” said an officer.
The process of putting up an infallible argument took many months till the Singapore court was convinced and granted Mumbai police permission to extradite Pillai earlier this month. To bring him back, a team of three officers and two constables was sent to Singapore. Addressing a press conference, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sanjay Saxena said, “In the last two decades, this is the first case where Mumbai police has extradited a wanted fugitive, all on its own. In earlier cases, help was sought from central agencies and ministries.”
The Mumbai police obtained his custody in connection with a 2009 case, wherein a builder was allegedly shot at by Pillai’s associates. The builder had refused to pay '50 lakh that they had demanded as extortion money. While the builder survived, a case of attempt to murder was registered against Pillai and his associates, and five people were arrested. They were all booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in 2015. The Mumbai Police will first investigate his role in this case and then look into other cases.
