Pune gangster manages to obtain passport, travel abroad; police launch probe

Pune, Sep 29 (PTI) Police are probing how a Pune-based gangster, Nilesh Ghaywal, managed to obtain a passport despite facing multiple criminal cases of serious nature in the city and travel abroad, an official said on Monday.

A Look Out Circular (LOC) had been issued against Ghaywal, who is believed to be abroad currently, even as he faced fresh criminal charges in a road rage case in which a man was shot at by five to six of his associates in Pune.

"We have already issued an LOC against Ghaywal and now we are probing how he managed to obtain a passport despite having multiple serious criminal cases registered against him (most of them in Pune)," said a senior official from the Pune police.

Sources in police said the gangster may have obtained the key travel document illegally as cops in adjoining Ahilyanagar (earlier Ahmednagar) city had given negative remarks for his address verification.

Ahilyanagar Superintendent of Police Somnath Gharge, in a press release, stated that one Nilesh Bansilal Gaywal, a resident of 'Gauri Ghumat, Anandi Bazar, Maliwada Road, Ahmednagar,' had applied for a 'tatkal' passport (fast-track service) with the Pune Regional Passport Office.

"During the verification of the said passport application, the Kotawali police station (in Ahilyanagar) did not find Gaywal living at the said address, prompting the police to send negative remarks as 'not available' on the address to the passport office," said Gharge.

Ghaywal, who in his late 40s, has over a dozen serious offences registered against him, including for murder, attempt to murder and extortion, according to police.

Earlier this month, members of his gang allegedly fired at a 36-year-old man and assaulted a teenager in the Kothrud area following a road rage incident.

The Pune police said they have credible inputs that the gangster recently left the country, but did not specify his exact location. A probe was underway to find out how Ghaywal managed to obtain a passport despite a court order to surrender it, and then secured a visa to travel overseas, they said.

An LOC is a legal mechanism used to alert immigration authorities when a person wanted in criminal cases attempts to enter or exit India. It is routed through the state CID to the Bureau of Immigration and may precede stronger measures such as a Red Corner Notice.

A close aide of gangster Gaja Marne in the early 2000s, Ghaywal later broke away from him, triggering violent gang rivalries in Pune.

He had been previously booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and detained under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Slumlords, Bootleggers, Drug Offenders and Dangerous Persons Act (MPDA Act), as per police records. PTI SPK RSY