Pravin Mathre alias Chaptya and Ravi Pujari were flushed out of their Girgaon hideout by a special squad attached to the crime branch and a Special Operation Squad (SOS). One of the shooters was allegedly involved in the daylight killings of Krishnadas Narayan and Haridas Kurup, owners of Madras Cafe, Bhandup, on October 13.

Said to be Naik's key shooters, the duo has also been accused of firing on the owners of Plaza Cinema, Vinayak and Raju Mayekar, near Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, early this year.

The squads acted on intelligence reports that Naik's shooters had taken shelter at Kranti Nagar, Dena Wadi and Hemraj Nagar. However, two other gang members, Sashikant Sagevekar alias Chikna Babu and Raj Sawant alias Raju Ghata, managed to escape.

`The plan to nab the gangsters at Girgaon was successful after the police send in woman policeconstable Vijaya Malgoankar as a decoy,'' said assistant police inspector Ravindra Angre, a squad member. A senior crime branch officer also revealed that the police were closing in on key suspect Lalit Dhansingh Vishwakarma alias Lali in the Kurup murders, who, believe the police, had masterminded the shootout.

The gangsters are also accused in the murders of Dayanand Suvarna and Raja Taralkar under the jurisdiction of D B Marg police station, as well as those of Deepak Berde, Shankar Khara and Munna Shetty at LT Marg, added the police.

Operations were carried out under the supervison of Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Param Bir Singh and assistant commissioner Pradeep Sawant.