Mumbai: Lawyer held for trying to kill rival

Mumbai: A conspiracy hatched by a lawyer to bump off a political rival came to light after one of the three under-trials he helped escape from police custody was arrested by the Pune city crime branch.

The accused, advocate Sunil Mancharkar, who is the husband of former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Geeta Mancharkar, was arrested by the crime branch on Thursday under charges of abetting the escape of three convicts from Yerawada jail.

According to the police however, the jailbreak was part of a larger conspiracy to kill Mancharkar’s political rival and former corporator, Kailas Kadam. Officials said that the conspiracy was under wraps till such time one of the three under-trials, Kala Patre, was arrested. Pankaj Dahane, deputy commissioner of police, Pune crime branch, said, “We tracked down and arrested Patre and during his interrogation, came to know about the conspiracy Mancharkar had hatched. Patre revealed how they were helped to flee from police custody around three months ago.”

Officials said that Patre and two others were being brought from Yerawada jail to the magistrate court when they were helped to flee from custody.

Exactly how they were helped to escape is being investigated and so also the escorting police party’s role in the incident.

Following Patre’s revelations, the police arrested Mancharkar and booked him for abetting and hatching a conspiracy to help under-trials escape from police custody under Indian Penal Code. Mancharkar has been remanded to police custody till Tuesday for further interrogation to ascertain details of the conspiracy to kill Kadam.

Former corporator Sadguru Kadam and 11 others were arrested in connection with the murder of Suhas Haldankar that occurred at Kharalwadi. Haldankar was a former supporter of Mancharkar and Kadam, who won from the same panel of the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation.