Belagavi: As a desperate hunt for gangster Rasheed Malabari by Belagavi police continues in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, more leads into the murders committed by his gang have been obtained by the police in the last two days. A pair of jeans and an identity card were recovered by the police during the search operation of the spot from where businessman Rohan Redekar's body was recovered in Chorla Ghat a few days ago.
At least 10 men of Malabari's gang have been taken into custody by the Karwar police in connection with the murder of a computer hacker, Ashish Ranjan, whose body was recovered near Ankola some days ago. During the investigation, it was found that Malabari's gang had Ashish for ransom, later killed him and dumped his body near Ankola. Ashish was said to be one of the smartest hackers in the country and had been able to recover crores of rupees by hacking into dead bank accounts.
Sources said that several VIPs involved with Ashish in the hacking racket got him killed with the help of gangsters fearing that they would be caught if the “racket” was exposed.
On Redekar's murder, the police could ascertain to some extent that the body was that of Redekar based on the card recovered at Chorla Ghat along with a pair of jeans. They have sent the skeleton for forensic tests.
Three teams of Belagavi police are already on the job in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru to identify the possible hideouts of Malabari and have been able to find some places where he could be sheltered by his associates. The police suspect that Malabari could have also taken the help of a politician from Hyderabad who was his close friend for a long time. Malabari's arrested associates confirmed with the police about his visits to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Karwar, Belagavi and Mumbai in the last few weeks.
