MCOCA invoked in third case against Tipu Pathan gang

The Pune city police have invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in yet another case against thedreaded Tipu Pathan gang.Police said this is the third case against gangster Rizwan alias Tipu Pathan, 34, in which they have booked him and his gang members under the MCOCA.

On February 16, a first information report (FIR) was lodged against Pathan and his seven aides at the Kalepadal police station inPunecity, for allegedly giving extortion threats at gunpoint to a hotelier.

As per the FIR, Pathan allegedly called the 54-year-old hotelier to his office at Khwaja Manzil in the Sayyad Nagar, Hadapsar on January 12, 2025, and forced him to purchase meat from mutton shops where he had partnerships.

Pathan also allegedly held the hotelier at gunpoint and demanded Rs 5,000 extortion per month, the FIR stated.

The FIR also mentioned that Pathan and his aides went to the complainant’s hotel and threatened to kill him if the extortion demand was not met.

However, the hotelier approached the police only a year later out of fear for his life, the FIR stated.

Police had initially booked have booked Tipu Pathan and his aides Tanvir Shaikh, Irfan Shaikh, Azim alias Antya Hussain Shaikh, Saddam Pathan and four others in this case, under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections 189(2), 190, 191(2), 191(3), 308(5), 351(2), 351(3), 352, 61(2) and sections of the Indian Arms Act.

Now, sections of MCOCA have been invoked in this offence against Pathan and members of his gang, stated a press release issued today by senior police inspector Mansingh Patil.

The police said that Pathan was previously booked for around 30 serious offences, which include murder, attempt to murder, and extortion.

The police had intensified action against Pathan after a video of him purportedly hurling money during a qawwali programme in the city had gone viral in April last year.

In the same month, the police arrested Pathan and others, including his brother Ejaz Pathan, in a land grab and extortion case filed by a woman at the Kalepadal police station.

Police later invoked MCOCA in this case.

Also, in June, the police gunned down a Tipu Pathan gang member, Shahrukh alias Atti Rahim, wanted in this case, during an encounter in Solapur.

Then, police again invoked MCOCA against the Tipu Pathan gang in an offence lodged at the Kalepadal police station on October 12, 2025, by a 31-year-old woman fromMumbai.

The complainant had alleged that Tipu Pathan and his gang had taken illegal possession of her land of 1,290 sqft in Sayyad Nagar, constructed a tin shed on it, and rented the property out without her consent.

When the woman asked them to vacate her land, they allegedly demanded Rs 25 lakh and threatened to kill her, the FIR stated.