Two Pune police officers, gangster’s aide injured in encounter in Baroda

API Ranjit Bhoite (left), pistol used by goon Sagar Rajput (right)

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Pune : Two police officers from Pune city police crime branch and an aide of gangster Gajanan Marne were injured during encounter in Baroda, Gujarat, on Wednesday night.

The injured cops are assistant police inspector Ranjit Bhoite and constable Dilip More, both posted with Anti-Organized Crime Cell (North region), also known as Anti-Gunda squad, in Range Hills, Pune. The goon Sagar Rajput is also injured. They are undergoing treatment at Global hospital in Baroda. Bhoite has sustained injuries on leg while More has injuries on back.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) P R Patil has left for Baroda from Pune on Thursday.

According to police, the firing took place near Nehru Bhavan. Rajput, a wanted criminal from Pune, was hiding in Mahakali Sevusal lane near Nehru Bhavan. Pune police was in search of him and they identified the place and raided without help of local police on Wednesday night. Rajput fired on police and injured Bhoite and More. In retaliation police fired few rounds and injured Rajput and apprehended him.

Police officials said that Rajput had escaped on 10th December 2014 from Navi Mumbai, when gangster Marne and his nephew Rupesh.

They were absconding after murder of a rival gang member.

On November 3,2014, Marne and gang members had murdered Santosh alias Pappu Hiraman Gavde of the rival Nilesh Ghaiwal gang in Lavale. Gavde was a witness in the 2008 firing on Ghaiwal and Gavde by the Marne gang in Kothrud and was to depose in court against Marne. On November 29,2014, both gangs clashed again, where one person was killed and two others injured in a shootout outside Vaikunth crematorium. Amol Haribhau Badhe of Dattawadi, who was linked with the Ghaiwal gang, was shot dead, while Santosh Kamble and Lakhan Lokhande sustained injuries. In 2010, Sachin Kudle of the Marne gang was shot dead in Dattawadi, a case in which Badhe was a suspect. In 2013, the Marne gang murdered Pappu Taware of the Ghaiwal gang in his village. After reports of violent clashes between gangs in and around Pune, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered Pune police to tackle violence with an iron hand. Since then, cops have arrested several gang members.

Most of the gangsters and their aides are lodged in jails in different parts of the state.