Man held for hiring 3 to kill moneylender

The Kasturba Marg police has arrested a 36-year-old second-hand car agent for allegedly hiring three contract killers who murdered a moneylender at his behest. The moneylender’s body was found in Savaroli village in the Thane district on Tuesday and the hunt for the contract killers is still underway. In the meantime, the case has been transferred to the Talasari police station in Thane rural where the body was found. The deceased has been identified as Nilesh Upadhyay (42), who had lent '7 lakh to the arrested accused, Prakash Sawant and had been asking him to return the money. Sawant managed to return '6 lakh, but was unwilling to pay the remaining sum. Deputy superintendent, Ashwini Shelar said, “We arrested Sawant on Tuesday night and a team has been sent to nab the contract killers. '1 lakh was promised to them for the murder.” On Monday, Upadhyay and Sawant left together in the former’s Opel Astra and when Upadhyay did not return home, his wife Varsha started searching for him. When she inquired with Sawant, he made up a story that Nilesh dropped him in Vasai and went his way. She then received an SMS from Upadhyay’s cellphone that he was in Manor, Thane. She got suspicious and approached the Kasturba Marg police and registered a missing case. The police learnt that Upadhyay was last seen with Sawant and questioned him, where he confessed to having hired henchmen to murder Upadhyay.

*** Man seeks early release in drugs case Mumbai, Feb. 13: The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to clarify its stand on an application for commutation of sentence of an Indian man, who was convicted for possession of drugs in Mauritius, but was sent back to India to serve his remaining sentence. Prem Kishor Raj, an Indian national, was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment after he was caught with drugs at the airport in Mauritius in May 1996. He is seeking release from the Indian prison, contending that under the domestic laws, he would have got a maximum of 10 years in jail. In 2007, the President of Mauritius reduced his sentence to 23 years in an act of pardon. In 2008, he was repatriated to India, following the October 2005 agreement whereby Indians convicted in Mauritius could serve their sentence in India. “However, Indian law provides for a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail for the offence that he was convicted for. Hence, his sentence is over,” claimed his lawyer, Kranti L.C. The high court on Wednesday asked the state home department to inform it of its decision by Friday. — PTI