Film City firing: Three out of six accused held

Mumbai: Three persons, who were allegedly involved in the firing incident that took place in Film City last week here which left owner of a security agency critically injured, have been arrested, police said today. "We have arrested three persons yesterday and they will be produced in court today. We are going to request the court to get their remand so that we can nab the absconding accused," Vilas Chavan, senior police inspector of Arey Colony police station told PTI.

The accused -- the plotters of the incident -- have been identified as Sumit Talekar (22), Jugal Dodiya (26), and Yogesh Kokane (31), he said. Police said three others - the shooters -- Suresh Gaikwad, Sandip Khairnar, and Ramesh Kamble are at large and efforts are on to nab them.

According to a statement issued by Mumbai police, the accused orchestrated the attack to take revenge over a fight with Raju Shinde (who was shot at) last month, when they went to him in connection with a job. "A month ago, Kokane and three of his friends Suresh Gaikwad, Rakesh Kamble, and Sandeep Khairnar approached Shinde for a contract in Film City. But they ended up in argument with Shinde who beat and kicked them out," it said.

"Then they decided to kill Shinde and took a motorcycle and went to film city and opened fire at him. But during the chase, assailants the left motorcycle and ran away, which later helped police to nab them," the statement said.

A pistol, 10 rounds of live cartridges and two magazines have been recovered from Kokane's workplace and it is being ascertained whether the seized firearms were used in the May 22 attack, they said.

Shinde, an office-bearer of Shiv Sena's film wing 'Chitrapat Sena' was shot at and he was later admitted to Nanavati hospital in suburban Mumbai. The incident had taken place very close to where megastar Amitabh Bachchan was shooting.