D-company shooter a real estate dealer too

TEAM HERALD

PANJIM: Custodial interrogation of the underworld marksman arrested by Goa Police from Saligao on Saturday indicates that he is involved in real estate dealings. The police have managed to extract important leads which suggest his links to a Mumbai-based real estate agency to carry out property dealings in Goa.

“A lot of names cropped up during the interrogation. We have prepared a list of contacts and account details. There were a number of dealings made by him and his associates where money laundering activity was also rampant,” a police officer told Herald, requesting anonymity.

Shyam Kishore Garikapatti, who will be handed over to the Mumbai and Thane Crime Branch sleuths on Wednesday, was arrested at a rented house at Saligao and will be taken for additional/transit remand.

The police, however, declined to share details with the media claiming these would be submitted to Mumbai Crime Branch sleuths as he is wanted for serious offences in the neighbouring state. 

Garikapatti will be produced before the Mapusa court on Wednesday where a team of six Mumbai CB officials comprising two sub inspectors, one hawaldar and three constables, will seek a transit remand. 

The son of a retired civil servant, who was first with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and then with Subash Thakur, claims to be an estate agency employee. Investigation agencies have decided to summon the Mumbai-based real estate employer to Goa for questioning.

The investigation also revealed that Garikapatti would often travel to Dubai and Russia allegedly on different fake passports and with forged documents.

Before coming down to Goa on February 14, reportedly to celebrate his birthday with his female partner, he had returned from Hyderabad where his parents reside. Sources indicated that he was supposed to travel abroad thereafter.

Even as he would be handed over to the Maharashtra Police on Wednesday, the Goa Police are looking into whether he was involved in other illegal activities such as prostitution or drugs.

Sources also said the lease for the ‘Palms Spendour’ bungalow was not in his name but was signed by another person. The landlady, who is likely to face criminal action, is charged with not ascertaining the identity of the ‘new’ occupants but only accepting the monthly rent of Rs 22,000 in cash from the gangster.