Politicians who wished to remain unnamed claim that the police and the other authorities in the city were aware of the involvement of Mankar in land-grabbing activities for years, but did very little to curb his activities. This has been the pattern in the other cases also.

In May, 70-year-old Ivy Marshall had complained that as per the instructions of builder Naushat Vazir, a group of men had ransacked her house in Camp when a police sub inspector and two constables had taken her to the Cantonment police station, where she was booked on charges of trespassing and later released on bail.

An MLA from Nagpur, Victor Freitas, had taken up the matter with Home Minister Jayant Patil and demanded action against the cops. Patil directed the Pune police commissioner to investigate the matter. Police arrested a few suspects in this case, but the prime suspect, Vazir, is still at large.

As many as 12 cases have been registered against Mankar. But the police cracked the whip only after the 64-year-old Yeshwant Natu went public with his complaint last month. The Natu family alleged that Mankar and his men had forced them to sell their property in Shukrawar Peth to builder Sudheer Karnataki for Rs 1.25 crore in March 2008. Natu also alleged that he had approached the police many times, but received no response.

Sources said police kept itself off land disputes, arguing that they were civil matters. This apparently encouraged the land mafia to carry on their activity, unhindered and unchecked.

Purnima Prabhu, who filed a complaint at Shivajinagar police station against Deepak Mankar's brother Shivaji Mankar, had alleged that no stern action was taken against Mankar's men who attacked her family at their residence in Mukundananda on FC Road, on December 29 last year, but a criminal complaint was registered against her brother Rajeev, who was severely injured in the attack.

The high court had termed the complaint against Rajeev as false. Purnima said Shivaji Mankar had purchased the property and wanted her family to vacate the house in the property.

Additional Commissioner of Police Prabhat Kumar said, “There is a thin line between civil and criminal matters. Most of the land disputes are civil cases. Police can investigate only criminal matters. There is a need to provide guidelines to the inspectors and sub inspectors on investigation of land disputes.”

Asked about the other land grabbing crimes in city, Commissioner of Police Satyapal Singh said, “We are receiving fresh complaints of land grabbing other than Mankar's case. That's because people have faith in the police. The terror of land grabbers is nearing its end.”

Meanwhile, a committee of two assistant commissioners is being appointed for probing the allegations against the police in the Natu and Prabhu case.

“The report is expected in a week's time,” said Singh. The police commissioner said there was no pressure on police in Mankar's case.

The city police claimed that the search for Mankar was on, but they could not arrest him even as he appeared before the Bombay High Court along with his bunch of supporters on Tuesday. Mankar's lawyer Ashok Mundargi told the court that Mankar had come from Pune.

While most politicians preferred not to be quoted, Shiv Sena legislator Neelam Gorhe came out in the open and said, “It seems the police are hand-in-glove with the land grabbers in the city as the police have been ignoring the cases being filed against the accused and instead harassing the complainants.”