Pune police kill wanted criminal Hatti in encounter in Solapur
Pune police Sunday gunned down a 'notorious criminal on record' during an armed encounter in the Solapur district.
The man, identified as Rahim Shaikh, who also went by the aliases Shahrukh and Hatti, had been on the run for five months.
According to a senior police official, a team from the Pune Crime Branch located Hatti in Lamboti village in Mohol, Solapur district.
The team, assisted by officers from the Mohol police station, intercepted him around 5 am.
As the police attempted to apprehend him, Hatti reportedly opened fire. Police returned fire, fatally wounding him at the scene.
Hatti had been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and was wanted in connection with multiple serious offenses.
Among the most recent was the armed robbery of a food delivery worker, which took place on May 14 in the Sayyad Nagar area of Pune's Hadapsar neighbourhood.
The delivery worker, Umar Shakeel Shaikh, 21, reported that he had been held at knifepoint by two men.
Police later identified the suspects as Hatti and Noman Sayyad, 20, another known offender.
Sayyad was arrested soon after the robbery, while Hatti remained at large.
Shaikh, a resident of Mohammadwadi, filed a First Information Report at the Kalepadal police station, which launched the investigation.
According to authorities, Hatti and Sayyad were also involved in a separate incident on March 12, in which a senior citizen was assaulted in Sayyad Nagar.
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