Deepak Bapu Keluskar, owner of Chhaya Travels in Dadar, was driving the stolen vehicle (MH-04-AA2002) when he was arrested. The police had found the Sumo had a fake number plate and papers. Later, his manager Chandrakant Narayan Khedekar was also held. It was learnt that Keluskar had struck a deal with the thieves for Rs 60,000 but was yet to pay the amount.

Earlier, police from Wavi in Sinnar taluka of Nasik district had nabbed the gang of vehicle thieves who had hired the Sumo, owned by Thane-based lawyer Anand Vaidya, for a trip to Shirdi. On way to the temple town, the driver Navnath Bansi Satale was strangulated to death with a nylon rope. Police found Satale's body dumped along the Sinnar-Shirdi road on September 21, 1998.

The gang was nabbed afterSharifa, a girlfriend of one of the gangsters, Sudhir Haribhau Munwar, turned approver. She was an eyewitness to the whole incident. The arrested gang members are leader Lancy D' Souza, Sudhir Munwar, Sadruddin Khan, Shravan Shinde, Ajay Yadav, Sanjay Khairnar, Yakub Mohammed Rauf Shaikh and Jameel Rehman.

The gangsters were produced in the court which remanded them to police custody till September 26. A search of the residence of the accused led to the discovery of the original registration papers of the vehicle, driving licence of the deceased and the nylon rope used for the murder.