Mateen Hafeez TNN
Mumbai: The Crime Branch, probing the shootout at the doorstep of Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother, Iqbal Kaskar, is now planning to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) on the case. So far, the crime branch, with the help of local police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), has arrested four persons for killing Kaskar’s bodyguard, Arif Bael.Police sources said that they were looking for a wanted accused, Umed-ur-Rehman Ishrat, who is suspected to have hatched the conspiracy for the shootout. “Umed is wanted in two earlier cases. This becomes a case fit for the application of MCOCA. Senior police officials are exploring the legal points in the case,” said a police source.
Two shooters, Indralal Khatri (28) and Bilal Mustafa Ali Sayyed (29) had pumped five bullets into Bael who was standing at the main gate of Kaskar’s building on the night of May 17.
“Umed is wanted in the 2009 murder case of informer and bookie, Chhote Miya alias Zahid. The crime branch is also hunting him for the shootout case in which south Mumbai resident Asif Khan was seriously injured. One Shakeel Modak and a woman flower vendor were killed in the firing in February 2010. Umed is learnt to have played an active role in both the cases,” said a police officer.
The crime branch produced Khatri and Sayyed before a magistrate in the Esplanade court on Thursday, which remanded them in custody till May 31. The two other accused—Sayyed Adnan and Rashad Khan—are already in police custody. They are accused of conducting a recce of the area where the incident took place and transporting weapons for the crime.
“It seems that Bael was killed over a dispute involving lakhs of rupees. However, we cannot disclose more until we nab Umed. Khatri and Sayyed were promised Rs 50,000 each for the killing. They were paid Rs 5,000 each in advance,” the police said.
The Times of India, May 27, 2011
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