Banking on a bar owner to nab wanted murderer Ashok Purohit, badly backfired on the cops yesterday when the bar owner Raju Pandit and his partner Nilesh Mandal warned the killer instead and helped him escape. The reason? Purohit was a much-valued customer who spent long hours at their bar every night, drinking liquor and lavishing money on the bar dancers!

The cops managed to save face however, when in true Hindi film style, a pretty bar dancer who Purohit lavished money on, and who felt slighted at having been recently cold shouldered by the management, revealing everything to the cops, following which both the bar owners were arrested on Saturday.
Raju Ganga Pandit (35) and his partner Nilesh Degan Mandal (30), owners of Sheetal bar on Grant Road, were formally arrested by officers of Unit 7 of the city’s crime branch for helping Purohit escape. Both accused are residents of Vashi Naka, Chembur.