Joerg Teuchert
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Mumbai: Arbaz Sayyad, the main accused in the shooting outside Gazebo Mall in Khar, was arrested by Mumbai police upon his return to Mumbai after hiding in Aurangabad for the past two months.
A Crime Branch Unit 9 team arrested Sayyed on October 28, an officer who was part of the investigation said.
On August 11, at around 7:45 p.m., three men, including Sayyad, fired a few rounds at the mall’s plank with a locally-made pistol. The men left a note written in Hindi threatening to kill hawkers doing business outside the centre.
According to criminal branch officials, Sayyad and his associates fled the scene on a motorbike, reached Bandra station, where they abandoned the two-wheeler, and then left town on a train. Sayyad was hiding in Aurangabad.
Police in Khar, where the case was registered, arrested three other defendants, including Sayyad’s cousin, Sharik Shaikh (24). While Shaikh was arrested on August 16, two others, Noor Shaikh, 19, and Rohan Tambe, 22, were arrested on August 23.
Khar Police reviewed CCTV footage outside the mall as well as other areas of Khar and Bandra. This helped them identify the make of the bike which they eventually found abandoned outside Bandra station.
An investigation found that the shooting was the result of a rivalry between gangs who wanted to take control of peddling in the area, which began after a local resident who wanted to set up his stand outside the center s’ is beaten with a peddler over the matter, a felony says the branch police officer.
According to the officer, Sayyad fled the city with a few thousand rupees and did odd jobs in Aurangabad to survive. He finally contacted his family members and asked them to send him some money.
The Criminal Branch team, which was assisting the Khar police in their investigations, got wind of the transfers and tracked down Sayyad’s location. However, when a team from the criminal branch arrived in Aurangabad on October 27, he was on his way back to Mumbai, CB Police Inspector Sanjay Khatade said.
Another team from the criminal branch nabbed Sayyed on Friday night and handed him over to Khar Khatade police station, it said.
The four defendants are residents of the Khar Danda area of Santacruz and are suspected of being part of a group of peddlers who wanted to keep their stalls outside Gazebo, the crime section officer quoted above said. above. Sayyad resorted to shooting to create an atmosphere of fear, the officer added.
