A key conspirator in the murder of Nadeem Ahmed Sayed who was also a witness in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, was today arrested.
A key conspirator in the murder case of Nadeem Ahmed Sayed, an RTI activist and a witness in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, was today arrested from the airport here, city Crime Branch officials said.
According to the officials, with the arrest of Mushir Qureshi, the key cospirator in the murder case, the number of arrests made in the case has gone up to 11. Sayed was stabbed to death with sharp weapons on November 5 in Juhapura extension here. A witness in the Naroda Patiya riot case, Sayed had also raised RTI queries on the Godhra riots and related incidents.
"Mushir Qureshi, a builder by profession and a key conspirator in Sayed's murder, was arrested, after he landed at the airport from Dubai," ACP Mayur Chavda told reporters.
On November 19, the Crime Branch, which is probing the case, had arrested seven persons, including Mohammad Sharif alias Kaalu Gardan, who executed the murder.
"After giving the contract of killing Sayed to Kalu Gardan, he (Qureshi) had left for Dubai on November 2, so that he could get an alibi. But during his interrogation, Gardan confessed to have received Rs five lakh to eliminate Sayed. Also, Qureshi has confessed to the same during his primary questioning after arrest," Chavda added.
According to Chavda, Sayed had complained to police about Gardan and Qureshi indulging in cow slaughter, following which, there was a clash between the slaughter-house owners and police in October, in which, a police jeep was torched.
Besides this, there was a personal rivalry between Qureshi and Sayed, which might have led to the latter's murder, the ACP said.
Sayed was a Congress worker and a witness in the Naroda Patiya case, in which, 95 persons were killed on February, 28, 2002, during the communal violence that erupted after the Godhra train burning incident.
The court had recorded Sayed's statements a couple of months before his death.
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