22 January,2016 07:28 AM IST | | Sagar Rajput
The man walked into the Crime Branch office with a pistol, claiming two businessmen had given him a supari to kill a rival builder — a story he cooked up at the behest of the latter
The Crime Branch Unit IX officers were left scratching their heads, when a man walked into their office with a pistol claiming two businessmen had given him supari to kill a builder. But investigations soon raised doubts and it was revealed that the builder himself had told him to approach the police with the cooked-up story, as he didn't wish to return some money which he had taken from the two businessmen.
The man, Santosh Shinde, claimed two businessmen gave him R10 lakh to kill a builder
The Crime Branch arrested two men, including the one who approached them, for trying to implicate the businessmen in a contract killing case. The two accused were identified as Santosh Shinde (the man who approached the police) and Abdul Majid, his accomplice. They were arrested on Wednesday. The builder Naseem Machi, is yet to be held.
The Crime Branch officers told Shinde to call the businessmen and get more information
The incident
A Crime Branch officer said, "On January 15, Shinde had come to our office, and he told us that he had been assigned a job to kill Machi by two businessmen Saleem Nanhe and Ashfaq Mansuri, for which he was paid Rs 10 lakh." The officers asked Shinde to call the duo and get more information, but Nanhe and Mansuri never answered the calls.
The businessmen did not answer calls or return them. The officers also called them but calls were not answered
"We also kept calling from Shinde's phone for two days but they never answered and neither did they call back. If they had to give Shinde a contract to kill Machi, they would have picked his call at the first ring. We got suspicious of Shinde's claims, and we got his Call Detail Record (CDR) and learnt that he was never in touch with Nanhe or Mansuri, instead he had called Majid and Machi," added an officer.
This raised doubts and the police got Shinde's CDR and found he was in touch with the other accused and the builder
The cops learnt about the conspiracy Shinde, Majid and Machi had hatched. Shinde revealed the roles of Majid and Machi in the interrogation. The officer further said, "Machi had taken some money from the two businessmen which he didn't wish to repay, so he approached Majid and hatched the conspiracy and appointed Shinde for the job. As the two businessmen were constantly harassing him for money, Machi had even earlier implicated them in false cases."
The police then arrested Shinde and his accomplice Abdul Majid. illustration/uday mohite
Crime Branch Unit IX detected the case under the supervision of Joint CP Atulchandra Kulkarni, Additional CP KMM Prasanna, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mohan Dahikar, ACP Sunil Babar, Senior Police Inspector Mahesh Desai and his team.
The cops alleged that the two arrested accused, Shinde and Majid, residents of Dharavi and Bandra respectively, are history sheeters involved in several cases of robbery across the city.
"Majid has 16 cases registered against him. In one of those cases, he had pointed a gun at his wife after a heated argument between the two. After that his wife approached Santacruz police station and he was arrested," added an officer. The two accused were booked under Sections 182 (false information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) and 120 (B) (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code along with Sections 3 and 25 of the Arms Act.
