Pune: The city crime branch on Saturday claimed that they had identified various assets, including land parcels, hutments and shops, belonging to Andekar family members, operating the Andekar gang from Nana Peth.The total valuation of these properties in Phursungi, Kothrud, Mulshi and Nana Peth is estimated to be around Rs18 crore. The Pune city crime branch on Saturday evening issued a statement providing details of the properties of the Andekar family members. It stated that the police had invoked charges of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar and other family members. The act empowered the police to act against properties in the possession of people against whom MCOCA charges had been invoked, the statement said.The Samarth police on Sept 10 invoked MCOCA provisions against Bandu Andekar and 14 others arrested so far in the Sept 5 murder of Ayush Komkar (18) in Nana Peth — an act to avenge Vanraj’s murder. Ayush’s father, Ganesh Komkar, also Vanraj’s brother-in-law, is one of the 21 accused jailed in the former corporator’s murder over a property dispute within the Andekar family and rivalry with a former aide-turned-foe.Last week, the Faraskhana police arrested four men for allegedly collecting monthly extortion money on behalf of the Andekar gang from vendors at the unauthorised fish market in Ganesh Peth. Based on the fish traders’ statements and the subsequent registration of an FIR, the police said gangster Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar and his aides, including his family members, collected Rs20 crore in “protection money” from them in the past 12 years.In the last two weeks, the Pune Municipal Corporation and the police demolished the fish market and other illegal installations of the Andekars in Nana Peth.
