Diwan Ali’s killers may have fled Bangalore

Contract killers from outside the city were also involved in the murder of BBMP corporator Diwana Ali at Yarabnagar on Sunday, officers privy to the investigation said.

"The real people behind the plan to eliminate him must be from outside," the officer said, adding that rowdy Afsar Khan alias Afi could not have carried out the murder alone.

Afi, Ali's former associate, had been nursing a grudge against him, after the latter intervened in his father's liquor business , after which Afi was forced to shift residence from Yarabnagar.

Apart from Afi and his associate Shahnawaz alias Nawaz, police are not ruling out the possibility of murderers fleeing to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh or Maoist-infested areas.

Police said a team of investigators would travel to these states, in pursuit of the suspects.

"Another possibility is that his archrival Shaikh Mohammed Asgar alias Mahim, a Kannada movie actor, might have paid supari (contract) to kill Ali," the officer said.

Police believed that a huge sum of money was paid to murder the corporator. Four persons were taken into custody for interrogation.

"Mahim, previously a JD(S) legislator, had shifted loyalties to a Congress MLA, with whom he earlier had a close relationship. Nawaz, considered to be a close aide of Mahim, who was also involved in the murder of a fish vendor in Bismillahnagar near Tilaknagar last year, was released on bail recently," police said.