Shooter, stepdad fled to Goa on firing night

PAKMODIA ST ATTACK

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Investigations after the arrest of Chhota Rajan henchman Umaid-Ur-Rahman (27) have revealed that the aide caught with him is his step-father, Asif Jaan (42), and the two escaped to Goa the night he ordered the shooting on Pakmodia Street.
Rahman’s father died 10 years ago and later, his mother married Jaan.

Rahman is the prime suspect in the Pakmodia Street shooting case in which underworld don Dawood Ibarhim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar’s bodyguard, Arif Bael, was killed on May 17. Within half-an-hour of the incident outside Kaskar’s house, the police had arrested two shooters.
“After they learnt that their shooters had been caught, Rahman and his step-father, Jaan, along with their wives, left for Goa in a car,” said an investigator. The two rented two rooms for Rs 10,000 a month near a hotel on Arambol beach in Goa.

“Jaan had arranged for two shooters to execute the killing on Pakmodia Street. He was paid well as the work had to be done at Kaskar’s doorstep,” said an officer.
The police said Rahman was born and brought up on Peerkhan Street and later shifted to Mumbra in 2006. He was well aware of the D-gang’s activities in the Nagpada area. “Perhaps that is why he was chosen by Chhota Rajan,” said the officer.

The police have recovered 11 mobiles, 11 sim cards and four credit cards from Rahman. His mobiles also contained several numbers connected to the underworld people. “We are examining everything and cannot say much at this stage,” said an officer. The police are verifying if fake documents were submitted to procure the credit cards.

A Std-VIII drop-out, Rahman’s first brush with the underworld was in 2006 when he, along with a fugitive suspect, Guddu, was assigned by Chhoa Rajan to kill a police informer and his associate. Rahman also attempted to kill a police officer but he was caught. “Later, he was also involved in the conspiracy to kill a bookie, Chhote Miyan, and attacked one, Asif Khan,” the police said.
The father-son duo has been sent to police custody till July 12.

The Times of India, July 10, 2011

Police fear for shooter’s safety in prison

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: With the Chhota Shakeel’s gang baying for Chhota Rajan’s man Umaid-Ur-Rahman’s blood, the investigating agencies are worried about his security inside the police lock-up and later, the prison.

A source in the police said Shakeel has ordered his men, incarcerated in prisons across the state, to “teach Rahman a lesson” once he was brought to
the jail, for attacking Iqbal Kaskar’s bodyguard.

“Almost all the prisons in Mumbai and nearby cities have several members of Dawood and Shakeel’s gang lodged there,” said a source in the security establishment. However, this intelligence input has not been shared with jail authorities. Incidentally, ever since the shooting on Pakmodia Street, security in jails has been reviewed and in some places, safety has been stepped up, to preempt any bloodbath inside, where members of the rival gangs were feared to clash.

Umaid is involved in at least four shootings in the city, including the firing on Kaskar’s body guard Arif Bael outside Kaskar’s house on Pakmodia Street on May 17.
His name first cropped up in a firing case at D N Nagar in 2006, when an alleged bookie, Zahid alias Chhote Miyan, was shot dead.

Umaid, said a source, wanted to jump the ladder of success in the underworld overnight. He had reportedly told his friends, “Dawood made his name from Nagpada, why can’t I?”
Umaid was born and brought up in Nagpada area, where fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim used to stay. Some of Ibrahim’s family members still live there.

The Times of India, Jul 9, 2011

After being let off, two suspects go into hiding

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: The arrest of seven persons for the murder of J Dey came as a boon for two small-time thugs, Mateen Shaikh (25) and Anwar Hatela (35), who were rounded up by the police as the first supposed suspects in the senior journalist’s killing at Powai on June 11.

The two were apparently tortured so much that they even “confessed to the crime”, which they had no inkling about, one of their friends said. After the two were let off following the seven’s arrest, they have gone into hiding. “To allay public outcry and buckling under the political pressure, the city police wanted to arrest Shaikh and Hatela. They were convinced of the two’s roles in the murder and decided to arrest, but crime branch officials were not convinced,” said a senior police officer. However, joint commissioner of police (law and order) Rajnish Seth told TOI, “This is not true. The city police picked them up and handed them over to the crime branch for investigation.”

The special squad of west region police detained Shaikh and Hatela—both stay in Mumbra—on June 14. All that the Powai police had was information put together from various sources, some of them credible and some not so credible, about the duo.

One of the tips that the police relied on was that Shaikh was linked with the Chhota Shakeel gang and Hatela was his aide. “Latching onto this piece of unconfirmed information, the Powai police took Shaikh and Hatela to the police station and began hitting them.Soon after,Shaikh‘confessed’ to everything, though Hatela protested innocence,” said the officer. Secondly, Hatela owned a Maruti Zen, which the cops claimed, was the vehicle used by the assailants to flee. The third information that apparently sealed the police’s hunch was that Hatela’s brother, Arif Kalia, was a suspected Shakeel gang member who was shot dead in a police encounter in 1998.

Positive that the tips were adding up, the cops reportedly started on their work and Shaikh “confessed”, to a cooked-up story. Shaikh claimed he was given a supari of Rs 80,000 by Hatela who “showed him the target”.

But, after going through the call records of the two’s mobiles, the crime branch learnt that they were in Mumbra on the day of murder and not in Mumbai, a source said. “There was no evidence against the two. Had they been arrested, we would have lost our face today,” he added.

The Times of India, July 2, 2011

Murder they wrotej

In memory of J Dey

Threats. Assault. Deadlines. All in a day’s work. Nishita Jha decodes the world of a crime reporter

Illustration: Samia Singh

JOURNALISTS RARELY write about journalists, until something goes terribly wrong. In the best case scenario, your name is eclipsed by the size of your headline. In the worst, you become front-page news, only to be tossed to the morgue to make space for the next day’s stories.

Mumbai-based crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey’s murder sparked an agitation against the underworld terrorising the Press. Consider for a moment the forgotten headlines. In 1982, Ulhasnagar journalist AK Narayan was hacked to death by Maruti Yadav for his stories on the Mumbai mafia; Narayan’s body was chopped, divided into two trunks and deposited at his doorstep. In 1997, underworld kingpin Chhota Rajan’s men shot crime reporter Baljeet Parmar on Antop Hill, Mumbai. Every month, the Mumbai Police registers hundreds of complaints from journalists who cover crime — citing assault and threats.

The reason Dey is likely to become just another cautionary tale is not because the outrage surrounding his death is superficial, it’s because in the world of a crime reporter — especially in Mumbai — threats are usually a sign that things are going right. Mumbai-based reporter Mateen Hafeez, 30, who has covered crime for the past 10 years, barely pauses before he starts talking about 2004 — the year he realised what his beat was about. In the month of Ramzan, Hafeez was at gangster-turned- MLA Arun Gawli’s house, interviewing him on his connection with extortionist Sunil Ghate. An enraged Gawli slapped Hafeez and asked him to leave. As Hafeez entered the courtyard, hundreds of men surrounded him, snatched his phone, broke his motorcycle and thrashed him for four hours.

Related Mid-Day reporter J Dey killed by unidentified men in Mumbai Dey dared them all. And died for it The elephant in the newsroom

Finally, a barely conscious Hafeez was taken to the nearest police chowki, on the accusation that he’d entered an MLA’s house armed with a knife. “The policemen tried to get my fingerprints on the knife. They refused to believe I was a reporter. When I told one of them that I had been fasting all day, he gave me water, some dates and a phone to call my mother. The first person I dialled was my editor. The second, Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police.” It took Hafeez eight hours to get the police to file his report. Seven years later, he laughs, “Is this a good way to begin the story?”

This swagger is not unusual. Anand, 23, has been on the crime beat for the past one-and-a-half years for a newspaper and believes editors sell the beat — particularly to young boys — appealing to their spirit of adventure. He says the beat is challenging not just because it shreds your naiveté, but also because of the sheer number of people that one must network with on a daily basis. “Initially, it was difficult to walk into a police station even to ask where the SHO sits,” recalls Anand, the son of a businessman, who lives in Noida with his parents. In the past year, he has learnt to appreciate the inner workings of what he once described as a “Kafkaesque nightmare”. “The under-appreciated, low-ranking officer wants to be called ‘sir’. The IPS officer likes discussing Machiavelli. The guys who run the show and the ones on the ground have nothing in common, yet you must get them both to like you.”

‘Gradually, even the most sensitive reporter will ask ‘how many bullets, is the head severed, how badly is she burnt?’ without any emotion,’ says Anand

Navigating this complex social landscape is not something that journalism school prepares you for. Hafeez recollects how initially the thrill of meeting an ‘informant’ would take him zig-zagging all over Mumbai, until he realised it was safer to just call people near his office. Neeta Kolhatkar, bureau chief of NewsX, says the most sterling advice she ever received in her seven years of crime reporting came from the deceased Hemant Karkare — policemen might be friendly, but they are not your friends. “The police are as often my source as they are the impediment to a story,” she agrees. Others will sweetly swallow official press statements, paying little heed to how confessions were extracted. Ambarish Bhat, principal correspondent with Bengaluru’s Deccan Chronicle, thinks the first rule of crime reporting should be: don’t trust the police. “A lazy reporter and a corrupt cop share a symbiotic relationship. The reporter will not go the extra mile, and the policeman will not encourage him to do so. There are three versions to a story — the police’s, the complainant’s and that of the accused. A crime reporter must also investigate witnesses.” Sanjeev Yadav, investigating reporter with Cobrapost, believes the police is too invested in saving its own reputation, which is why reporters play a bigger role in unearthing evidence. Part of the swagger comes from believing you are not just reporting a crime, but actually solving it.

KOLHATKAR COMPARES reporters to doctors “finding and removing malaise in society”. Both must develop hardened exteriors in order to survive their jobs. “It is depressing. I covered the Prasadnagar taxi driver who gangraped and sodomised three children for 18 months before he was caught. Even 50 years from now, I will recall it with a shudder,” admits Anand. “Gradually, even the most sensitive reporter will ask — ‘how many bullets? Is the head completely severed? How badly is she burnt?’ without any emotion. It is natural but also psychotic. It changes you.”

If the world of crime seems like too much for a woman to deal with, pick up a copy of ex-crime reporter S Hussain Zaidi’s most recent book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, where he introduces a new cast of characters to the usual suspects — Gangubai, the matriarch of Kamathipura, Jenabai, Haji Mastan’s adviser and Ashraf, who wreaks havoc on the system when her husband is shot in a fake encounter. Hafeez estimates that there are about 20 percent female crime reporters in India, but does not think this is a dismal figure. Kolhatkar feels technology and a vigilant media have also changed the landscape of crime reporting for women. “People worry about sting cameras and prefer to talk on the phone. I don’t mind. I’m selective about who I drink with,” she says.

The bravado and dogged determination comes with an invisible price. In his early days as a crime reporter, Sahara Samay’s Rajiv Ranjan wrote about a pregnant homeless girl who showed up at Delhi’s Ambedkar Hospital for her delivery, and was refused admission. The child died in the absence of medical aid. Ranjan stirred up editorials until the doctor in question was fired. A few years later, Ranjan accompanied his pregnant wife to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for delivery, and found the same doctor in charge. “He told me I was responsible for ruining his life.” Eventually, the doctor agreed to look after his wife’s delivery. A few hours later, she suffered a miscarriage. Ranjan muses, “Maybe she was too weak…” but his instinct refuses to let him take comfort in this excuse. “I still don’t know why I agreed. I guess a part of me believed that he wouldn’t fail his profession,” he trails off. Sometimes, what a crime reporter needs most of all is the ability to forget.

Nishita Jha is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
nishita@tehelka.com

Journo may have had a source in Scotland Yard

Mateen Hafeez & Ahmed Ali | TNN

Mumbai: A new lead in the murder of 54-year-old journalist J Dey has the crime branch in a tizzy. Call detail records from Dey’s mobile phone have revealed that the journalist had been in touch with Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police Service of London. A police source who is part of the investigation team said, “Dey had received and made a few calls to someone in Scotland Yard. We are surprised. We are investigating who the official could be, and what the story was about.”

It so happened that in the last week of May, Dey had visited Europe—London, Switzerland and Germany—for ten days. Investigators believe that Dey may have met a source or an informer in London for a story, and will be questioning the journalist’s tour operator. “It’s possible that something went wrong in the meeting,” said another senior police official.

Investigators have found around 2,000 numbers stored in Dey’s mobile phone. “There were some contacts Dey was in constant touch with over the phone for brief periods of time, after which there was no further activity from those numbers,” said the source. The police also found contact numbers of some members of the underworld. “Dey would contact them for his stories. We have located the areas where the calls from the underworld came from. Dey had also made some outgoing calls to them,” he added. Some of the contacts are under police surveillance now.

On Tuesday, the police recorded the statement of another witness. “We now almost know the motive behind Dey’s killing, but until we get the accused we will not reveal anything,” said the senior officer. The police have retrieved information from two computers—one from his workplace and another at his residence—and three laptops that Dey had been using. “Two additional hard discs were also recovered, but they were corrupted,” they said. The crime branch with the help of the cyber experts were able to access Dey’s email accounts and the 3,000-odd mails he had received and sent. The officer said the police have not come across any letters that raise doubts on Dey’s credibility.

The Times of India, June 22, 2011

Businessman behind Dey murder? 3 held

WHEELS OF DEATH: The car which was allegedly used to transport journalist J Dey’s killers

S Ahmed Ali, Mateen Hafeez & Vijay V Singh TNN

Mumbai: The Mumbai police on Wednesday detained three suspects, including the shooter, in the murder of journalist J Dey. Two of them, Mateen Shaikh (25) and Anwar Hatela (35), suspected members of the Chhota Shakeel gang, were picked up from Mumbra in Thane
district. The third, Sayyed Nadeem (34) alias Bobby, is a police informer. A Maruti Zen belonging to Anwar, which was used as a getaway car by the assailants, has also been traced.

Police suspect that Dey was shot dead on Saturday by four bike-borne persons at the instance of a south Mumbai businessman who is into smuggling of red sandalwood. Police sources said the supari was worth around Rs 70,000.

However, senior home department officials remained tight-lipped about the developments and said that a clear picture was yet to emerge.

Chhota Shakeel, an associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, denied his involvement. “I have nothing against Dey. I was never affected by Dey’s writings. Why should I kill an innocent person?” Shakeel said. He told TOI over phone from an undisclosed location that a senior police officer had sought his help in the case. “Now, I am surprised that my name is linked to the killing. I do not know Shaikh or Hatela,” he said.

Dey may’ve been offered 10L to kill smuggling story Journalist Planned Report On Illegal Sandalwood Trade; Teams Sent To Pune, Chandrapur To Trace Conspirators
The Mumbai police are questioning three suspects in the J Dey murder case. Investigations, said sources, point to the role of a south Mumbai businessman who trades in red sandalwood. “Dey was working on a story that could have exposed his illegal trade. The businessman, using his underworld contacts, executed the murder. This is one of the key motives that has emerged from our interrogation,” a cop said. The businessman offered Rs 10 lakh to get the story suppressed through police informer Bobby, but Dey refused to accept it, the officer said.

The police picked up the three suspects on Wednesday morning based on information
gathered from informers and intelligence inputs. They are now grilling them to unearth the conspiracy and trace their accomplices. Police teams have left for Pune and Chandrapur to hunt for the other conspirators. Police are also probing whether Dey was killed because of the stories that he planned to write on a senior cop’s links with Dawood Ibrahim.

Police said they suspect Bobby acted as a middleman between Dey and the businessman. “Bobby provided information on the businessman to Dey. He then approached the businessman and tipped him off about Dey’s plans to write a story on him. The businessman told Bobby that he was willing to pay Rs 10 lakh to Dey if he dropped the story.”

Police said they are gathering details on Mateen and Anwar. Anwar’s brother, Arif Kalia, a key member of the Chhota Shakeel gang, was shot dead in 1998 in a police encounter, sources said.

The police are also trying to trace Gujarat-born suspect Haji, involved in at least three murder and attempt-to-murder cases. “He was seen in Mumbai a day before Dey’s killling. After Dey was shot dead, Haji is learned to have headed towards Pune,” said a source.

Haji, said sources, met the businessman last week. It is not clear whether Haji organized the shooters. “The businessman came from Dubai to Mumbai two weeks ago and a day before Dey’s killing, he left India for Dubai again,” said a source. The businessman’s uncle and a south Mumbai politician are business partners.

“Bobby had informed Dey that a consignment would be sent abroad as fruits from Nhava Sheva port. But it actually contained red sandalwood,” said the source. It is also alleged that Bobby met Dey on June 10, a day before he was shot, to identify their target.

BJP for fair probe
New Delhi: Expressing “deep concern” that no headway had been made in the probe into the killing of senior journalist J Dey, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday demanded that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. In a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari said that following media reports alleging some cops’ involvement in the killing, it has become all the more important that the probe be handed over, to be carried out “in an unbiased manner and in a credible way”. TNN

A condolence meet for the slain scribe in the city

Informant who helped Dey being questioned

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The Mumbai police’s crime branch is questioning an informant, Sayyed Nadeem alias Bobby, in connection with the murder of journalist J Dey. Thirty-four-year-old Bobby is a resident of Damar Lane at Mohammed Ali Road and is also known by his other aliases Paglajaan, Sayyed Sahab, Jada Seth and Raghu. The son of a small-time businessman, he studied in Habeeb High School at Dongri before dropping out when he flunked in standard VIII. In 1998, he fortuitously escaped an attempt on life when the gunman mistook Bobby’s friend for him. The friend, however, died from the gunshot wounds. Over the years, several cases have been registered against Bobby, though he was discharged in two of them. As an informant, Bobby was in constant touch with police officers and several journalists. He reportedly came in touch with Dey two years ago, after which he frequently shared information with the senior crime reporter. The state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad recently seized about a dozen firearms acting on a tipoff given by Bobby. A few days prior to Dey’s killing, Bobby had visited the ATS’ Nagpada office to meet a senior police officer. He works as a site supervisor for a real estate developer.

Nadeem Sayyed alias Bobby


The Times of India, June 16, 2011

UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT

Police bosses claim that Anil Mahabole had no role in the killing of senior reporter J Dey. Maybe, but there is no denying that the murder case has inadvertently put the focus on the 54-year-old ACP and his Monday evening transfer

NAME | Anil Mahabole (54)
RANK | Assistant commissioner of police
JOINED POLICE FORCE IN | 1979 as sub-inspector
Current Posting | Local Arms Unit (control room)

FIRST BRUSH WITH CONTROVERSY | While he was in charge of crime branch unit-1 in 2007, Mahabole was accused of showing leniency to Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar in a case where she was charged with not repaying Rs 1 crore to a real estate agent. In a related development, a complaint was filed with the anti-corruption bureau alleging that Mahabole demanded a bribe. Perhaps as a result, Mahabole was transferred to the Local Arms Unit, considered an insignificant posting. However, no action was taken on the inquiry report sent by the ACB to the police commissioner’s office

UPS AND DOWNS | After three years in the Local Arms Unit, Mahabole was promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner of police in 2010 and transferred to the police headquarters’ control room. From there, he was posted as ACP, Azad Maidan division, a highly sought-after zone

SECOND BRUSH WITH CONTROVERSY | A journalist, T K Dwivedi aka Akela, accused Mahabole of threatening him this year while he was in a Government Railway Police lockup. Akela was booked under the Official Secrets Act for writing a story on the poor condition of the armoury where the railways’ weapons are stored. An inquiry was set up against Mahabole, but it is yet to be completed

ACCUSATIONS | Two days after Dey’s murder, his colleague Akela claimed that the two were threatened by Mahabole in the past. On Monday evening, the ACP was transferred from Azad Maidan to the Local Arms Unit (control room), though the top police brass said that the decision had nothing to do with the murder or the investigation into it

Text: Mateen Hafeez


The Times of India, June 15, 2011

Journalist’s murder case: Senior cop comes under the scanner

J Dey’s Colleague Complains Of Threats From ACP

S Ahmed Ali & Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Two days after journalist J Dey was shot dead, the Mumbai police, under pressure to solve the case, are examining various possibilities including the role of a police officer. Dey was shot dead on Saturday afternoon by four bike-borne killers at Powai.

Police said they would question assistant commissioner of police Anil Mahabole because Dey had spoken to his friends about threats from the officer. On Monday evening, the government transferred Mahabole from Azad Maidan to Local Arms (control room), considered an insignificant posting.

Dey’s colleague in Mid-Day, T K Dwivedi alias Akela, said they were threatened by Mahabole. “Dey and I had been working on some stories on Mahabole’s links with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim,” Akela told TOI.

City police commissioner Arup Patnaik told journalists on Monday evening, “I am neither denying or confirming Mahabole’s role.” He refused to elaborate but said the police had some vital leads. Mahabole declined to comment on Akela’s statements. “I have no personal enmity with Akela or Dey. Let the crime branch investigate, the truth will come out soon,” he said.

PAGES FROM A WHODUNIT
Dey’s colleague at Mid-Day, T K Dwivedi aka Akela, claimed that they had been working on a story exploring assistant commissioner of police Anil Mahabole’s links with Dawood Ibrahim and that the cop had earlier threatened the duo
Police chief Arup Patnaik said they were investigating all angles. Interestingly, Mahabole was shunted from Azad Maidan to an insignificant posting on Monday evening
Cops also probing if the underworld or oil mafia had a hand in killing. Personal enmity is also a theory

Police probe possible role of imprisoned oil smuggler
Some police sources main tained that Mahabole’s shunt ing had nothing to do with the Dey case but was connected to the pending inquiries against him

Senior police officers said they are also probing whether Dey was targeted by the underworld or the oil mafia for his writings as also the possibility of personal enmi ty. The city crime branch on Mon day released the sketch of one of the shooters, based on the de scription given by a witness.

Dey had also met home minis ter R R Patil in May and submit ted the state Anti-Corruption Bu reau’s adverse report on Mahabole The officer was investigated after allegations that he helped Da wood’s sister Haseena Parkar in an extortion case registered against her. This happened after Akela was booked under the Offi cial Secrets Act for his story on the poor condition of the armoury where the Railways’ weapons are stored. It was alleged that Ma habole had instigated the arrest.

A senior police officer said that Dey’s mobile phone records showed that there was a mismatch between names and numbers “This could also be to protect the identity of the people whom he contacted for his stories,” a police officer said. Dey had told several journalists that he never disclosed the identity of his sources.

Police on Monday questioned Sadruddin from Navi Mumbai who trades in fuel. Police are also probing the role of an oil smug gler linked to the underworld who is currently in jail. “Gangsters normally do not target journal ists for their writings,” a police officer said. The cops have also questioned several informers with whom Dey interacted for his stories. Several informers con tacted the police and provided the ories that caused the murder.

Police said that the CCTV footage that showed the killers fir ing at Dey was not clear. “It was raining and the visibility was poor The shooters wore windcheaters which made it difficult for us to identify the faces,” a police officer said. Police also said that Dey did not visit any shop to photocopy documents as believed initially Dey, while returning to his Powai home from his mother’s flat in Am rut Nagar, Ghatkopar, went to DTDC couriers and sent some doc uments to the Philippines. Dey was to leave for the Philippines on an office visit on June 21. “An initial probe suggested that the docu ments he was carrying were sen sitive and linked to the killings, a police officer said. “We only know that it was a contract killing and meticulously executed,” he added

A police sketch of one of the suspected killers

The Times of India, June 14, 2011