The policemen cordoned off the residence of Gawli's father-in-law Shaikh Lal Mujavar Nanhubhai, where the don is camping ever since he was externed and thrown out of Mumbai in February, and made the arrests during the operation which went on throughout the night.

Several senior officials including Special Inspector General of Police Mohan Rathod, Superintendent of Police Gulabrao Pol and Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajendra Dahale participated in the action.

Reinforcements were brought in from the police stations at Manchar, Khed, Chakan, Narayangaon and Ghodegaon as well as the Pune Rural police headquarters at Pashan.

Gawli and his men had locked themselves inside the bungalow which has been fortified ever since the don came down to stay there. The policemen forced entry inside and arrested all the men in it. The arrested ABS workers hailed from various places across the state.

Later, the police proceeded to carry out a thorough search of the entire bungalow along with the B M Bhise were injured in stone pelting by Gawli's men while constable Sunil Ramchandra Shelar was stabbed with a knife, he added. Three police vehicles were damaged in the attack.

He said inspector Netaji Shinde who led the police team ordered lathi charge to bring the situation under control. Most of Gawli's men locked themselves up inside the bungalow after the lathi charge while the police succeeded in arresting 45 persons.

Later, the policemen cordoned off the bungalow and summoned reinforcements. Gawli himself was arrested along with his in-laws and supporters after the policemen forced entry inside.

Help of the Pune city police and the Mumbai police has been sought to ascertain the identities of the arrested persons and to find out whether any of them were members of his gang.

Cops erred in obtaining information
It took an attack on the police by don-turned-politician Arun Gawli's men for the Pune rural police to realise how little they know about his operatives and how important it is for policemen to recognise faces.

A day after Gawli and his men attacked a police team, Superintendent of Police (Pune rural) Gulabrao Pol dispatched a team to Mumbai to collect information and photographs of Gawli's men.

``Lack of effort on the part of Pune rural police to obtain detailed information about the Gawli gang despite the fact that he has been camping in the district for six months is a lacunae,'' Pol admitted to Pune Newsline.

But Pol pointed out that police had taken adequate measures to maintain law and order while Gawli camped at his in-law's bungalow at Wadgaon Paanchpir village near Manchar.

Pol said that after the don was externed from Mumbai and Thane in February this year, the Pune rural police deployed a team at Wadgaon Paanchpir to jot down names and addresses of people visiting Gawli. These names and addresses were being cross-checked and verified with the police commissioners and district superintendents from where the visitors had come. Besides, suspicious looking visitors were being detained for questioning at the spot, Pol said.

ABS will field candidates in Satara
Satara: The Akhil Bhartiya Sena (ABS) will field its candidates in Javli, Koregaon and Satara Assembly constituencies, ABS state coordinator Datta Pawar told media persons recently. ABS would contest from 175 Assembly and four Lok Sabha constituencies in the State, he said.

ABS chief Arun Gawli was planning to contest from Khed Parliamentary constituency in Pune district, Pawar said. The ABS leader was confident that his party would win 75 Assembly seats.