Police arrest absconder NCB witness Kiran Gosavi

Pune, Oct 28 (IANS) In a key breakthrough, the Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of Pune Police arrested absconder Kiran P. Gosavi, the prime 'Panch-Witness' of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the October 2 cruise party raids who is wanted in several fraud and cheating cases by Maharashtra Police, here on Thursday.

Gosavi, who had sneaked into hiding for nearly a fortnight, was picked up from a lodge in Katraj, brought to the police headquarters and later placed under arrest, Pune Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta told mediapersons.

"Let me make it clear. We have arrested him, he has not surrendered," Gupta said of Gosavi, whose selfie with Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan, had gone viral after the NCB swooped on the cruiser.

According to the police, from tech-intel it came to light that Gosavi was moving and hiding in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Jalgaon, Lucknow, Hyderabad and other places in the country, with police teams hot on his chase.

"At times, he used an alias of 'Sachin Patil' and stayed in various placesa He is saying many things. Let's not get into details at this stage," Gupta added.

When pointed out that Gosavi had been offering to surrender for many days, Gupta asked: "He has been saying so, but did he (surrender)?"

The accused, nabbed in an old case registered in 2018, has been claiming to be a private detective, into an export-import business, dealing in electronic gadgets, etc, but Pune Police said all this would be investigated.

Earlier, hunted by the special teams of Pune Police, the AEC cornered Gosavi on the outskirts of the city around 3.30 a.m. on Thursday morning after he was reported missing for the past nearly three weeks when his name first surfaced in the cruise party raids row.

He was detained and taken to the Pune Police headquarters where he is kept in a police lockup prior to completing the post-arrest formalities, and questioned by a team headed by a Pune Deputy Commissioner of Police.

Gosavi, with cases lodged against him in Mumbai, Thane and Pune had sneaked out of the state reportedly moving to various states after his name blew up in the NCB raids case.

Facing a lookout notice, just two days ago he created a midnight drama in Lucknow by announcing his surrender before the Mandiaon Police (Uttar Pradesh), but the move was aborted at the last minute.

Official sources say that his attempts to asurrender' reportedly failed before the police in at least two states, both ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and finally he managed to reach Maharashtra where the AEC caught up with him on Thursday morning.

Gosavi is among the 10 persons summoned by the NCB vigilance team from New Delhi, camping in Mumbai, to record his statements in the probe into the alleged corruption charges against Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.