Pune: A crime branch team arrested gangster Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar (70), his daughter, Vrundavani Nilanjay Wadekar, and her two sons, Tushar (27) and Swaraj (23), after intercepting their car in Buldhana around Monday midnight in connection with the revenge killing of Ayush Komkar (18) in Nana Peth on Sept 5. The four were driving towards Mehkar as part of a plan to travel outside Maharashtra, police said. Another police team arrested two more suspects, Aman Yusuf Pathan (25) and Sujal Rahul Meragu (20), from a spot on BT Kawade Road in the city and recovered two country-made pistols from them. “As of now, we won’t make a comment on if the seized pistols are murder weapons till our investigation is over,” additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh said on Tuesday. All the six arrested people are among the 13 suspects named in the FIR based on a complaint filed by Ayush’s mother, Kalyani Komkar. Ayush, the 19-year-old son of one of the jailed co-accused, Ganesh Komkar, in the murder of former NCP corporator Vanraj Andekar on Sept 1 last year, was shot dead by two assailants in the crowded Nana Peth area on the evening of Sept 5. Ayush is also Vanraj’s nephew.On Tuesday, the police produced Bandu Andekar and the five others before judicial magistrate first class S R Badawe who ordered their custodial remand till Sept 15. Co-accused Yash Patil and Amit Patole, who were arrested on Sept 6, are already in police custody till Sept 12. “All the eight arrested accused have admitted during questioning to having killed Ayush (a second-year civil engineering student from a college off Paud Road), as part of a conspiracy to avenge the Sept 1, 2024, murder of Bandu Andekar’s son and former NCP corporator Vanraj,” a press release issued by the Pune Police stated.Vanraj Andekar, who was looking after his father’s financial and property interests, was involved in a property dispute with his sisters — Sanjivani and Kalyani (Ayush’s mother). The two sisters are married to the Komkar brothers, Jayant and Ganesh, respectively. Sanjivani, Jayant, Ganesh and Bandu Andekar’s rival, Somnath Gaikwad, and the latter’s aide, Aniket Dudhbhate, are among the 21 accused jailed in the Vanraj Andekar murder case. The Andekar gang was looking for revenge, the police said. Based on the investigations so far, the police have identified Aman Pathan and Yash Siddheshwar Patil (19) {arrested on Sept 6}, as the two men who had fired multiple rounds at Ayush in the basement parking of the apartment building where the victim resided. Total nine bullets were recovered from the teen’s body. Sujal Meragu and Amit Prakash Patole (19), arrested earlier with Yash Patil, were present on the spot as backup, the police said. Bandu Andekar, his third daughter, Vrundavani, her sons, Tushar and Swaraj and five other suspects are named conspirators in the murder. All are residents of Nana Peth.Additional commissioner of police (crime) Deshmukh said on Tuesday: “Our search is on for the remaining five suspects. The Andekar gang members primarily wanted to eliminate either one of two close relatives of Somnath Gaikwad in Ambegaon Pathar. However, the police foiled their plot on the night of Aug 31 and the gang members turned their focus on Ayush in their desperation to avenge Vanraj’s murder by his first death anniversary.“Around 6.30pm on Sept 5, Yash Patil and Amit Patole reached the basement parking area on a scooter, while Aman Pathan and Sujal Meragu reached there on a bike. Ayush picked up his younger brother from the latter’s tuition class and drove into the basement parking area around 7.30pm. As he was parking his two-wheeler, Patil and Pathan, fired multiple rounds at him as Ayush’s younger brother took cover behind a vehicle. The assailants then drove away from the spot, the police release stated. Asked if Bandu Andekar, who was externed in early 2024 from the city limits for two years, illegally entered Pune, Deshmukh said: “We are verifying this aspect. Our teams regularly visited his home but he was never found there. We are also ascertaining how Vrundavani, Tushar and Swaraj joined Andekar in the car that was intercepted in Buldhana.” In the court, assistant public prosecutor Nilam Yadav-Ithape, while seeking a seven-day custodial remand for the six accused, submitted that the offence was of serious nature triable by a sessions court and that the police needed sufficient time to thoroughly interrogate and unravel all details of the conspiracy. The prosecutor submitted that the police needed to investigate the source from where the accused procured the firearms to execute the crime and also to recover the two-wheelers used in the crime. Besides, the Samarth police needed to work in tandem with their Bharati Vidyapeeth counterparts, to investigate common aspects in the Ayush Komkar case and the foiled Ambegaon Pathar murder plot case. Prima facie, it came to the fore that Aman Pathan had supplied the firearms seized in the Ambegaon Pathar case, she submitted. The magistrate, after hearing either side, granted the police plea for remand till Sept 15.
