Crime Branch team gunned down notorious criminal Robert alias Rahul Raju Salve, 32, at Indrayani Nagar in the Bhosari area early this morning. The police said they shot him in an encounter. This was the first encounter killing by the city police in one-and-a-half years — in what appeared to be a response to Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh’s “bullets for gangsters” call.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Kumbhare said Salve, a resident of the Nigdi Ota Scheme with 42 offences registered against him, was killed in a joint operation by the Anti-Extortion Cell and Anti-Dacoity Squad of the Crime Branch. The police had received a tip-off that some criminals would be meeting at Indrayani Nagar and then execute a robbery at Moshi toll naka. Two Crime Branch teams were
then formed to lay traps at toll naka and at a water tank in Indrayani Nagar. The sleuths found Salve and his accomplice at Indrayani Nagar, after which police inspector Ram Jadhav asked them to surrender. Salve, however, opened fire on the police team from his pistol, using four bullets one of which hit constable Susheel Kakade on the hand. In retaliation, police inspectors Ram Jadhav of the Anti-Dacoity Squad and Kishore Jadhav of the Anti-Extortion Cell fired three bullets from their service revolvers, two of which went through Salve’s chest. As he collapsed, the police seized his pistol but his accomplice managed to escape from the spot. The cops then rushed constable Kakade and Salve to Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, where the latter was declared dead on arrival. The police seized a revolver and four empty cartridge cases from the encounter spot. They informed that Salve had earlier fired two times at police teams. In 2002, he had fired on two constables who were chasing him in Pimpri while in 2003, he had fired at a police team in Chatuhshrungi.
Salve had also been arrested in an attempted dacoity case in Aurangabad but escaped from the custody of Chhavani police station, Aurangabad. The police said that Salve first entered the crime files in 1996 when he was still a juvenile.
His first crime was a vehicle theft. After that, his names appeared in crimes like dacoity, robbery, house break-ins, and attempting to murder policemen and in Arms Act cases. He was booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in 2003 and acquitted in 2006. Kumbhare said Salve had been arrested at Nigdi five days ago for illegal possession of firearms and released on bail. Salve, who was strong built and exercised regularly — even in jail— had assaulted dreaded gangster Ravi Pardeshi while in Yerwada jail.