'Only wanted to kill Broker, not his aide'

Says main accused Ibrahim Shaikh to the police; meanwhile, the charred bodies have been sent for DNA testing

Ibrahim Shaikh — prime accused in the murder of Vinod Broker (83), and his secretary Usha Nair (51) — has been trying to mislead them say cops. Wary of his antics, police officials have kept Ibrahim and his two accomplices — Ravindra Reddy and Nitin Bhatia — separated.

“If they are kept together, they may cook up a story to hoodwink the cops. So, we have kept Ibrahim in the Cantonment police station and the other two accused are in Bund garden police station,” said senior inspector Shivaji Kamble of Koregaon Park Police Station.

In the bag: Ibrahim Shaikh and Ravindra Reddy in police custody. File Pic

Police are interrogating the three men independently. Senior police inspector Bhanupratap Barge of Social Security Cell quizzed Ibrahim at the Crime Branch office for more than seven hours yesterday. “So far, the investigation and interrogation indicate that the plan was the brainchild of Ibrahim and there was no one else behind the scenes,” said Barge. He, however, clarified that the matter is being probed from all angles.

Ibrahim has said that the plan was to only kill Broker in a bid to grab his property. On Monday, Crime Branch officials took him to the area where the bodies were found and recreated the crime scene to determine chronologically what exactly happened on April 30.

Another police official said that even an underworld connection cannot be ruled out, and there is a possibility that these three people were mere foot soldiers, used by a gang looking grab the 8,000-sqft accommodation in Juhu. He maintained that interested buyers who had approached Broker would be summoned.

Kamble said that relatives of Broker and Nair have been demanding for the remains of the deceased. However, to ascertain their identities the charred bodies have been sent for DNA testing. “This is a formality as it is confirmed that the bodies are of Broker and Nair. The latter’s son had visited the murder spot near Khandala and identified her bangle from the crime scene,” said Kamble.u00a0

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