The Mumbai Police on Monday arrested six people in connection with the brutal murder of a 32-year-old man, allegedly close to a candidate in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, in Bhandup on Sunday.
The victim, identified as Shankar Prasad Yadav alias Kalli, was stabbed 22 times before the accused fled the scene. Teams from the local police station and Crime Division located and arrested the six accused within 24 hours.
Hemraj Rajput, deputy commissioner of police, Zone VII, said they formed eight teams to locate the accused. While the Crime Branch arrested three of the attackers, local police nabbed three others allegedly involved in the conspiracy.
An officer said the three attackers, identified as Jahid Shaikh, Armaan Shaikh and Pramod Varangane, were arrested from the forest area of Sanjay Gandhi National Park by the Anti-Crime Branch.
According to the police, the accused and Yadav had a fight over collecting money from a construction site two days before his murder. “Both sides had threatened each other with dire consequences. The accused told us that they had not killed Yadav, he would have killed them. We are checking if this has any connection with the murder,” the officer said.
“Yadav himself had at least five FIRs registered against him, and locals have alleged that he was extorting money from them,” an officer said.
“Yadav was close to Shehzada Malik alias Sajju, who contested the recently held BMC polls in Bhandup but lost. Malik had also been arrested earlier by the Bhandup police in connection with an extortion case,” the officer added.