Moholkar succumbs to bullet injuries in Pune’s Sassoon Hosp

Nashik: Wrestler-turned-criminal Sagar Moholkar (32) on Monday succumbed to the four bullet injuries he suffered in a firing incident on March 4, while undergoing treatment at Pune's Sassoon General Hospital.

"He died at 7.30pm on Monday while undergoing treatment," said inspector Dashrath Chaudhary of the Jamkhed police station where a case of murder attempt was registered in connection to the case.

On March 4, two masked bike-borne men fired seven rounds at Moholkar at Noorani Colony in Jamkhed. Four bullets hit him in his neck, chest, stomach and back, while the remaining three missed the target. He was initially taken to a hospital in Ahilyanagar from where he was rushed to the Sassoon hospital. The Jamkhed police said the attempted murder FIR would now be converted to a murder case.

A resident of Jamwadi in Jamkhed, Moholkar had five criminal cases to his name, including two murders. He had walked out of prison on bail in Jan. He hit headlines when he publicly slapped Pune gangster Nilesh Ghaywal at a wrestling event at Andarud village in Dharashiv district on April 11, 2025, during a quarrel. The Dharashiv police had then registered a case against Moholkar. Chaudhary said the attack on Moholkar was at the behest of Ghaywal who is now one of the accused in the case.

One of the suspects, Abhimanyu Pote (24), was arrested on March 9. The police said another suspect, Rohit Akhade from Pune's Kothrud area, has also been arrested and is in custody.

Three more suspects are on the run apart from Ghaywal, a notorious criminal from Kothrud, who is said to have escaped to the UK.