JUDICIAL Magistrate First Class M D Joshi on Wednesday extended the police custody remand (PCR) of hardcore criminal Ranjit Halke Safelkar, arrested in the sensational Manish Shriwas murder case, till April 12. Seeking extension to his PCR, Crime Branch officers informed the court that there was development in the ongoing investigation. Police seized three vehicles and weapons used for committing the heinous crime. The accused showed the place where he had burnt his clothes after brutally killing dreaded goon Shriwas with his accomplices. His further custodial interrogation was necessary as investigators wanted to seize his Galaxy 8 smartphone which he had hidden somewhere in Madhya Pradesh.

 

There was sufficient information in his cellphone including the conversations with other accused in the case. Defence lawyers Adv Prakash Jaiswal, Adv Ashish Nayak, Adv Avinash Balpande, Adv Raunak Sharma and Adv Rohit Jaiswal strongly opposed further remanding the accused to police custody. The defence lawyers argued that the grounds cited by prosecution for extension of his PCR were false as there was no Samsung Galaxy 8 series available in the market in 2012, After hearing both sides, the court extended accused Safelkar’s PCR till April 12. After nine years, the Crime Branch cracked the mystery behind the murder of Manish Shrivas, a dreaded goon from Motibag. Sharad alias Kalu Narayan Hatey, Bharat Hatey and Hemant Gorkha in this connection.

 

Later, Safelkar was arrested. Chhotu Bagde, Isak Maske and a few others also were involved in the crime. Safelkar, also an alleged prime accused in architect Eknath Nimgade murder, hatched a plan to eliminate Shriwas. Accordingly, Shrivas was taken to a house situated in the fields near Pawangaon (Dhargaon) on the pretext of introducing him to a young woman on March 4, 2012. Safelkar, Hatey brothers, Bagde, Maske, Gorkha and others killed Shrivas with sharp-edged weapons. They then chopped the body into several small pieces and stuffed them in gunny bags. The accused then dumped the bags in a nearby forest. The murder was a fallout of an inter-gang rivalry.