The police have arrested three suspects ufffd Amol Navin Jagtap (19), Rakesh Ashok Deshmukh (19) andu00a0 Ankush Jyotiram Pawar (21)u00a0 in connection with the murder of Rahul Nayar (24) was killed with sharp weapons at the Shivajinagar court premises when he was there for a hearing in a murder case involving two rival groups.

Nayar, a member of the Dangat group, was allegedly killed by the rival Shaikh group.

The enmity between the Dangat and the Rahil Ismail Shaikh groups goes back to the time when Kumar Chandrakant Dangat was murdered in August 2008, allegedly by the Shaikhs over an affair between him and a member of the Shaikh family.

Yesterday, when members of both gangs were at the court, Advocate Rekha Nishant Karande was the first to be allegedly assaulted by the Shaikh gang.u00a0

Karande, who is the sister of Kumar Dangat and a prosecutor in the case, said, "I saw the gang members approaching and told this to some constables but they left as soon as they saw the mob."

The assault on Karande developed into a full-blown fight between rival gang members, and Nayar was grievously wounded. He was admitted to Sassoon hospital, but died. A case was registered against seven suspects at the Shivajinagar police station.

Eyewitnesses said the Shaikhs started abusing a witness in the court case after it was adjourned. They said five women along with other Shaikh gang members went inside the new building of the court and manhandled Karande. When the Dangats reacted, Nayar was attacked with sharp weapons.