Pune: A team of Pune police’s crime branch on Saturday night arrested gangster Bandu Andekar’s sister-in-law, Laxmi Udaykant Andekar (60), and her three sons, Shivam (31), Shivraj (29), and Abhishek (21), from Dwarka in Gujarat, in connection with the murder of Ayush Komkar (18) in the basement of his residential building in Nana Peth on Sept 5.Additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh said, “Our team produced the four suspects before a court in Dwarka on Sunday and secured their transit remand. They are now being brought to Pune and may reach late in the night or early on Monday. Some cash and cellphones were recovered from these four individuals.”Police have now arrested 12 of the 13 suspects named in the FIR based on a complaint by Ayush’s mother Kalyani Komkar, who is also Bandu Andekar’s daughter. Around 7.30pm on Sept 5, two men shot dead Ayush to avenge the Sept 1, 2024, murder of his son and former NCP corporator Vanraj. Ayush’s father, Ganesh Komkar, who is Vanraj’s brother-in-law, is among the 21 jailed in the Vanraj murder case.Ayush’s murder resulted partly from a property dispute within the Andekar family and from a rivalry with a former aide-turned-foe from Ambegaon Pathar. The only suspect, who still remains at large is Andekar’s son Krushna alias Krushnaraj (40). All 13 suspects are residents of Nana Peth.So far, police have arrested Yash Patil and Aman Pathan, both identified as the men who fired at the Ayush Komkar; Amit Patol and Sujal Meragu, the two back-up men present at the crime scene; and Bandu Andekar, his daughter, Vrundavani Wadekar, and her two sons, Tushar and Swaraj, as conspirators in the case. Laxmi Andekar and her three sons are also named conspirators in the case.Police have so far recovered two country-made pistols from the arrested suspects but haven’t yet confirmed if they were used in Ayush’s murder and are awaiting ballistic reports.More details about the places the four suspects visited from the moment they were on the run till date and if they were shielded by any individuals will unravel once they are brought to Pune and interrogated, the officer added.
