Pune: The court of judicial magistrate first class, A C Birajdar, on Monday extended the police custody of five people arrested in the former NCP corporator Vanraj Andekar murder case till Sept 12. Senior inspector Shabbir Sayyed from the crime branch (unit 1) produced Vanraj’s sister, Sanjeevani , her husband, Jayant Komkar , and his brothers Prakash and Ganesh , and key suspect Somnath Gaikwad before the court at the end of their initial custodial remand in the case. The police had arrested these five suspects on Sept 2, a day after Andekar was murdered.
Investigations revealed a property dispute between Vanraj and his two sisters and gang rivalry between Vanraj’s father, Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar, and Gaikwad as the combined motive behind the killing. The prosecution informed the court about the recovery of firearms and bullets from the possession of two suspects, Tushar Kadam and Akash Mhaske. Six two-wheelers and a car used in the crime were recovered from other suspects.
Assistant public prosecutor Yogesh Kadam told the court that the police had recovered the firearms and bullets from the suspects and pleaded to give sufficient time to the police to trace their source and collect evidence related to the conspiracy. He submitted that the police had arrested 16 suspects and sought time to confront them with each other, establish their individual role and find out if any other people were involved in the crime. He also said the magnitude of the crime was wide and p.