Last Sunday, the 17-year-old son of a notable builder in Pune appeared before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) after being apprehended for driving under the influence of alcohol and causing a Pune accident that injured two individuals. His bail was guaranteed by his grandfather, who also pledged to the JJB that the teenager would reform his behavior.

It has now come to light that the grandfather who founded the family's construction company is allegedly connected to the underworld and was arrested by Pune police for employing a mercenary from Chhota Rajan's gang in order to assassinate Ajay Bhosale, a Shiv Sena corporator.

Alleged Pune Accident Unveils Underworld Connections in Family Business

The grandfather of the youngster has been charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with hiring Chhota Rajan to carry out Bhosale's murder in 2009.

Pune accident
Source: iPleaders

The gangster was initially given the contract by the grandfather, who cannot be identified because doing so would reveal the identify of the youngster charged, to mediate between him and his brother in their dispute over the split of many estates, according to the agency.

In response, Rajan got in touch with Bhosale, who was close to the brother, in an attempt to use him as leverage and resolve the matter in his client's benefit. Bhosale refrained from interfering while running on a Sena ticket from Wadgaon-Sheri in the 2009 assembly elections.

According to the CBI, Rajan's client instructed the gangster to kill Bhosale because he thought the latter was biassed towards his brother. As Bhosale's automobile went through Koregaon Park, a hitman opened fire, but the bullet missed its target and wounded his driver. Bhosale got away with it.

“Sometime in 2009, I was contacted by Chhota Rajan to intervene in the property disputes between two brothers (the teen’s grandfather and his sibling). Since I refused, the builder gave a contract to Rajan and accordingly the attack on me was orchestrated on October 11, 2009,” Bhosale told HT on Wednesday.

The builder's name was omitted from a FIR that was filed with the Bund Garden police station. The CBI then took over the case, unravelling the plot to assassinate Bhosale and leading them to the builder, who is well-known in Pune for his high-end residential developments in the eastern regions of the city.

The builder and Chhota Rajan became the sixth accused when the CBI submitted its charge sheet.

The charge sheet states that the builder communicated with Rajan via his goon Vijay Tambat. "Chhota Rajan, on direction from the builder, ordered Mohammed Saqib Shahnawaz Alam Khan (one of the assailants) to shoot him (Bhosale) so that the estranged family member will hand over the desired share to his brother out of the fear lest he be targeted next," the agency stated in its 2020 submission to the CBI court in Mumbai.

While the most of the defendants in the case were taken into custody, Bhosale claims that the builder was able to obtain anticipatory bail and, like his grandson, did not spend a single day in jail. He is still charged in the case, nevertheless, due to his ties to the mafia and the agreement he made.

When the media explicitly questioned Maharashtra Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday on the builder's underworld links, he said that the police will look into every aspect of the family's behaviour and that "the police will act on it accordingly."

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