Navi Mumbai: Five of the eight accused wanted by Taloja police in an attempt to murder case have been arrested within 12 hours of the crime.An FIR for attempt to murder and under the Arms Act was registered against five identified accused and their three unidentified aides after the firing incident at the road junction near Cidco-built Marwa society in sector 22, near Pendhar metro in Taloja Phase-2 in which one person had sustained a bullet injury to his neck and the other person escaped unhurt as he ducked the fired bullet.A police source informed that five police teams of Taloja and three of the crime branch were formed to detect the serious crime. Using technical expertise and informer network, nine suspects were detained from Ulwe, Wagholi in Raigad and Pune. The Pune police assisted in nabbing the suspects. Upon their thorough interrogation, out of them, five suspects confessed to the crime and they were arrested. They were identified as Akash Ramesh Dange, Ganesh Dattatray Lavare, Aniket Pratap Narwade, Rudra Dadabhau Baravkar and Saurabh Goraksh Chaudhary. While two police teams are searching for the other accused in Pune, the firearms used in the crime are yet to be recovered. The arrested five accused were produced before the Panvel holiday court on Sunday that remanded them to police custody till Oct 28.As per the complainant Vishal Shinde (30), a resident of Cidco’s Asawari Gruhasankul in sector 27, Taloja Phase-2, his cousin Sachin Dange (34), with whom he resides, is the proprietor of Central Elevators that takes contracts for elevator maintenance in buildings and Shinde works in his company as a marketing officer. In 2021, a lift maintenance company named A.R.D. Elevator was started by five partners at Cidco’s Swapnapurti housing Society in sector 34, Kharghar. The business partners were Sachin Dange, Akash Dange, Sagar Dange, Yogesh Kale and Pravin Thorat. The said company was in operation till 2023. Thereafter, due to a monetary dispute between the partners, Shinde’s cousin Sachin Dange left the company and started his separate company named Central Elevators at Asawari Gruhasankul. From 2021 till 2023, the company A.R.D. Elevators had done business of Rs 1.2 crore, out of which Rs 40 lakh was due to be paid to Sachin Dange by his previous partners after which a monetary dispute arose.Nine months ago, Sachin Dange had secured the contract work of elevator maintenance of Panchanand Height building in Taloja phase-2 by giving a quotation of Rs 65,000. However, three months ago, Sagar Dange’s company A.R.D. Elevators had quoted Rs 45,000 for the same contract work. Hence, Sachin Dange had told Sagar Dange not to quote a lower rate and called him for discussion near Marwa building. When they met, a verbal spat ensued and it turned violent. Sagar Dange and his aides assaulted Sachin Dange and the complainant Vishal Shinde. During the confrontation, Rudra Baravkar arrived at the spot and fired one bullet at Sachin Dange, who sustained an injury to his neck and collapsed. Sagar Dange brandished a revolver tucked inside his trousers and fired one round at Shinde, who ducked the bullet and ran inside Marwa society. Sagar Dange and his aides ran after him but they returned from the gate as there were security guards.
