An alleged member of the Chhota Rajan gang was killed on Thursday by unidentified persons near Padgha village in Thane district, police said.
Narsaiyya Mama alias Langdya, who had an oil delivery and freight handling business, was attacked by some unidentified men with choppers while he was on the Mumbai-Agra National Highway, SP Thane (Rural), Archana Tyagi told PTI.
Thane crime branch sources said he was also a police informer.
Police said they suspect that Mama had split from the Rajan gang and had started operations independently.
Mama was attacked by 'four or five' unidentified men travelling in a Tata Sumo, just as his vehicle left a restaurant, Tyagi said. He was rushed to the Criticare Hospital in Thane by his wife and driver, where he was declared dead before admission.
The deceased received multiple injuries on head, limbs and legs, police said. The police later recovered the vehicle abandoned by the attackers from the highway, the SP said.
"We have found choppers in the vehicle and the attackers have been successful in escaping from the spot. We are getting some leads in the case from the hotel manager and others," Tyagi said.
According to a Thane crime branch official, Mama was a resident of Mumbai and had reportedly helped police in recovering a huge cache of arms at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust earlier, sent by the Chhota Rajan gang for operatives in Mumbai.
"But it is too premature to say if the killing is a fallout of the seizure," the official added.