Thane: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary Pradeep Purnekar’s murder case has arrested two more accused, Amit Jaykishan Singh alias Paplu (34), an autorickshaw driver from Bhayandar East, and Santosh Mehialal Kanojia alias Talli (41), a laundry operator from Manpada, Kapurbawdi, Thane.Both hail from Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh.Police said that the two accused are believed to be the main conspirators.Meanwhile, accused Papya Shinde was remanded in police custody till Oct 12 after investigators told a Thane court that he had allegedly supplied firearms, weapons and multiple SIM cards to the other accused.Senior police inspector Shailesh Salvi of Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell and also the investigating officer of SIT told the court on Friday that Shinde had allegedly provided a mobile phone to Kanojia. He had also allegedly supplied multiple SIM cards to the other accused, and investigators are probing their source and whether they were procured using different identities.Salvi told the court that Shinde was in contact with the other accused and had allegedly supplied weapons owing to his strong financial position. He said Shinde was not cooperating with investigators and sought four more days of police custody to establish the source of the firearms, trace the communication network and gather further evidence.The investigating team has recovered one of the two firearms allegedly supplied by Shinde, along with a mobile phone and a vehicle, the court was told.The complainant’s lawyer Sameer Hatle submitted that Shinde had allegedly supplied two firearms and other weapons to the accused. He also raised the possibility of political links in the supply of the firearms and questioned whether political figures had provided the weapons.Opposing the police custody plea, the defence lawyer argued that Shinde had cooperated with the investigation and had already spent 10 days in police custody. The defence further submitted that certain political figures had allegedly been named by other accused during questioning but had not yet been interrogated.After hearing the arguments, Judge S B Sable remanded Shinde in police custody till Oct 12 to enable investigators to pursue further leads in the murder case.
