Kishore Badlani alias Keshu Pune was on his way back from Europe when Crime Branch officers nabbed him; he had a torture chamber in his office to recover money, cops said
On Monday, Kishore Lalchand Badlani alias Kishore Pune alias Keshu Pune was arrested from Sahar international airport by the Mumbai Crime Branch in the IPL-6 betting scandal. His alleged claim to infamy: a) links to D-Company, b) a personal torture chamber to shake down punters with tight purse strings.
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Bookie Kishore Badlani alias Kesu Pune being produced in Esplanade Court (Killa Court) near Azad Maidan. Pic/Shadab Khan
Kishore Pune had just landed in the country from Europe, where he had fled in the aftermath of the IPL betting scandal, when he was arrested. A prominent bookie with alleged links to enemy of the Indian state Dawood Ibrahim’s betting syndicate, Kishore Pune had a personal torture room in Ghatkopar, which was used to recover money from obstinate or complicated clientele, police investigations revealed on Monday.
Kishore was allegedly directly associated with Zahid Hassan Mir alias Chhote Miyan, who looked after the D-company’s betting business until he was gunned down on July 29, 2010 in Nagpada. Chhote Miyan was Kishore Pune’s immediate boss. Kishore has been remanded in police custody till June 6 by the metropolitan court. According to the remand application, he had submitted forged documents to obtain SIM cards, which were then used to communicate for fixing bets.
Earlier, Kishore Pune was based out of Ghatkopar and operated the betting business from his office situated above Bharat Club at 90 Feet Road in this central suburb. At the time, he went by the name Kishore Pali. His office had a room where he would torment defaulters or others who owed him money. When punters failed to pay betting dues on time, they would be abducted and brought to the chamber, where they were tortured in the presence of Chhote Miyan, cops revealed.
“On several occasions, Chhote Miyan connected phone lines to Dawood Ibrahim to threaten punters,” a punter said, strictly on the condition of anonymity. Later, Kishore was shifted to Pune, where he received his current alias. He has invested huge amounts in real estate. Mumbai’s prominent bookies Hitesh Samrat and Ram Pimpari are his partners. It has been learnt that a recently retired IPS officer, who had been arrested in the stamp paper scam, was close to the bookie.
“Arrested bookie Ramesh Vyas used to communicate on 30 phone lines with bookies in Dubai and Pakistan. Among these, two lines were connected to Kishore Pune,” said an officer. Police have seized four mobile phones from Kishore Pune’s possession. Three of these were used for communicating solely with Vyas, Jupiter, Dinesh Sharma and Kishore Pablani.u00a0
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