For over two decades, Nilesh Bansilal Ghaywal was a name that echoed in Pune’s underworld corridors — a man who moved with the confidence of a kingpin and the cunning of a chess player.
But in September 2025, the gangster’s saga took a twist straight out of a crime thriller.
While his name was still inked in police registers, while his movements were supposedly under surveillance, and while multiple courts had ordered him to surrender his passport, Ghaywal quietly slipped out of India, leaving behind a trail of embarrassment, political mudslinging, and unanswered questions.
The Calm Before the Storm
Born in Sonegaon village of Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar district, Ghaywal wasn’t always destined for infamy. In his youth, he was an earnest student who completed his M.Com degree, with a sharp understanding of finance and numbers.
Yet, somewhere between ambition and anger, he crossed paths with the dark alleys of Pune’s crime world.
His descent began in 1999, when he was first arrested for extortion at the Kothrud police station.
By 2001, his name figured in three more cases, including murder. Around this time, he befriended the infamous gangster Gajanan Marne, only for the alliance to later crumble into one of Pune’s bloodiest rivalries.
Rise of a Gangland “Boss”
When businessman Mahendra Kavediya was murdered in 2003, both Marne and Ghaywal landed behind bars.
The killing was believed to be revenge for the assassination of BJP corporator Satish Misal, linking Pune’s local gangs with whispers of the Mumbai underworld.
Upon their release, the friendship between Marne and Ghaywal imploded — a split that would shape the next decade of Pune’s gang wars.
While Marne’s followers began calling him “Maharaj,” Ghaywal’s men hailed him as “Boss.”
Then came the night of May 9, 2010 — the Dattawadi shootout. Under the pale glow of streetlights, bullets tore through the air as Ghaywal’s men chased brothers Sachin and Atul Kudle, firing six rounds in a 2 km pursuit.
Sachin died on the spot; Atul barely survived. By the next morning, Pune’s underworld had a new name at the top — Nilesh Ghaywal.
Jail, Bail, and Political Reach
The police arrested him soon after, but every time the law caught up, Ghaywal found a way out.
Over the next decade, he was charged in kidnapping, dacoity, extortion, and MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) cases.
He was externed from Pune multiple times, yet his network flourished — often under the protective shadow of politics.
In 2017, even the Supreme Court granted him bail in the Kudle murder case.
Within months, he was back in the headlines — accused of demanding ₹1 lakh per month in extortion from a Pune Cantonment Board member and creating chaos at a Koregaon Park restaurant.
Still, every arrest ended the same way — bail, influence, and silence.
The Great Escape
Then came the move that stunned investigators. In 2019, while several criminal cases were pending, Ghaywal applied for a Tatkal passport at the Pune regional passport office, claiming residence at Gauri Ghumat, Anandi Bazar, Maliwada Road, Ahmednagar.
When police verification teams failed to find him at that address, the Ahilyanagar police marked “not available” in their report — a clear red flag. Yet, astonishingly, by January 2020, the passport was issued.
That single document became his ticket to freedom.
Ignoring a court directive to surrender his passport in 2022, Ghaywal kept it hidden.
Then, in early September 2025, while facing 22 criminal cases, including MCOCA, and multiple warrants, he boarded an international flight — reportedly bound for London, and later Switzerland.
By the time the Pune police realized he was gone, the trail had gone cold.
Chaos in Pune: The September 17 Incident
Ironically, just days after his escape, chaos erupted in Pune’s Kothrud area. On September 17, members of the Ghaywal gang allegedly opened fire during a road rage incident, injuring a student and an innocent bystander.
Two FIRs were registered, and the police invoked MCOCA against the absconding don.
But in a twist worthy of a courtroom drama, Ghaywal filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, claiming innocence — and asserting that he had already left India on September 9, well before the shooting. His lawyers called the charges “fabricated.”
The Passport Scandal Unravels
When investigators retraced the chain of events, they discovered the passport blunder — the approval of a document that should never have been granted.
The police now suspect false affidavits and forged verifications, all submitted to obtain a legitimate Indian passport.
He is believed to have used his children’s international education as a cover to travel abroad and continue running his gang remotely through local youths in Pune.
In just one month, the police registered 10 new FIRs against him and his associates.
The Interpol has now issued a Blue Corner Notice, while Indian authorities have begun passport cancellation proceedings — though it may already be too late.
Politics and Power: The Web of Connections
The fallout wasn’t limited to the underworld. Soon, the scandal spilled into Maharashtra’s political corridors.
While the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) accused the BJP-led government of shielding the gangster, the BJP countered that Ghaywal’s passport was issued during the Congress-NCP regime.
Photographs surfaced — images of the gangster with leaders across party lines: BJP’s Ram Shinde, NCP(SP)’s Rohit Pawar, and others from Ahilyanagar, his native turf.
Meanwhile, his brother Sachin alias “Sir”, a sports teacher in Pune with political aspirations, found himself under scrutiny.
A letter signed by Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam approving an arms licence for Sachin sparked outrage, as the police had already denied the request citing his criminal links.
Kadam defended himself, claiming that no offences were pending against “teacher and businessman” Sachin at the time of appeal.
But the controversy refused to die. Within days, police booked both brothers in a new extortion case filed by a businesswoman.
Sachin has since gone underground, suspected to be coordinating with his fugitive brother overseas.
The Ghost of Pune’s Underworld
Today, Nilesh “Boss” Ghaywal is a ghost — a man whose story reads like a cinematic script but whose escape exposes deep cracks in the system meant to contain him.
A man once jailed under MCOCA, externed, and monitored, managed to flee the country using a legally issued passport, leaving behind a city haunted by his legend and a police force scrambling for answers.
Some call it corruption. Others call it negligence. But to those who knew him, it was simply Nilesh Ghaywal — the man who always stayed one step ahead.
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