According to a release by the Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar police, the operation was launched after Inspector Shahuraj Ranaware of Crime Unit-III received a tip-off on Monday about five armed individuals gathered at Deepa Bar near the Nalasopara East railway station

Avinash Lalta Prasad Soni and a few others were booked in 2009 in the murder of a man over brokerage money in Nalasopara. While the other accused were arrested, Soni fled to Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh and lived there for several years under a false identity