Shakeel gang member gets 3 years in jail in Arms Act case

A member of the Chhota Shakeel gang, arrested here in 2014 for allegedly planning to kill gangster D K Rao, was sentenced to three years imprisonment by a court Thursday for illegal possession of a revolver. According to the prosecution, Mahir Siddhique, 44, Akhtar Jamal Khan, 41, and Ajmatullah Khan, 40, members of the Chhota Shakeel gang, had planned to kill Rao, an aide of rival gangster Chhota Rajan.

They had been booked under IPC section 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and under the Arms Act. The court, however, acquitted all of them in the conspiracy case, but convicted Siddhique under the Arms Act.

According to the prosecution, the trio had allegedly planned to kill Rao on the sessions court premises here when Rao was brought for the hearing of a case against him from Taloja Jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai. Ashok Satardekar, another alleged Rajan gang member, was also on the radar of the trio, the prosecution said.

A police official had deposed during the trial that he learnt from his sources that Rao was to appear in the court on September 9, 2014, when he could be attacked. The police laid a trap and arrested the three accused before they could execute the plan, the official said.

The police also recovered a revolver and four live cartridges from Siddhique. The prosecution also examined Rao and Satardekar during the trial, said Special Public Prosecutor Ashwini Raykar.

While Siddhique was held guilty under the Arms Act, the other two were acquitted by Additional Sessions Judge Anil Laddhad. Siddhique has already spent three years in prison as an undertrial, so his punishment will be offset.