In a shocking incident which came to be captured on a CCTV camera, a notorious criminal — with several serious offences registered against him — was hacked to death by rival gang members in full public view at Dhule in north Maharashtra.

The CCTV footage of the incident, which took place in front of a tea stall on Tuesday morning, went viral in the social media on Thursday.

Rafiuddin Shaikh, alias Guddya (33), a history sheeter with 30-odd offences including murders, attempt to murders, extortion and rape registered against him, was sipping tea at a local stall after a morning walk, when ten members of a rival gang attacked him.

The Dhule Police said that the rival gangsters, armed with a revolver and choppers, barged into the tea stall at around 6.15 am and one of them shot at Shaikh.

Subsequently, the gangsters dragged Shaikh out of the tea stall and mercilessly hit him with choppers in the neck and on the face. One of the gangsters is seen in the CCTV footage hacking continuously Shaikh long after he is dead.

“We have registered a case and the investigations are in progress. We have formed six teams to trace and arrest the culprits behind the incident,” Dhule’s Additional SP Vivek Pansare said.

The investigators have so far identified seven out of the ten gangsters involved in the incident. They are, Vilas Goyar, his sons Vicky Goyar, Shyam Goyar and Vijay Goyar, their accomplices Rajendra Devare, Bhima Devare and Dadu Devare.

The Goyar family, which is suspected to be behind the gory murder of Shaikh, has criminal antecedents. “Members of Goyar family had issues with Shaikh for years on end,” a senior police officer said.  

The investigations have revealed that the Goyar family members had kept a close watch on the movements of Shaikh, who was on bail in some of the cases registered against him Ahmednagar, Nashik, Dhule, all in Maharashtra, and the neighbouring the district in Madhya Pradesh.

Having laid hands on the CCTV footage of the incident, the police had taken precautions against its leak. However, the footage leaked and went viral on the social media.

In addition to the ongoing investigations into the actual incident, the Dhule district Police administration has ordered an inquiry into the circulation into the CCTV footage leak.