Azmi, who was defending accused Fahim Ansari in the 26/11 trial, was shot dead by members of the infamous Bharat Nepali gang in his office on February 11.
The killers of 26/11 defence lawyer Shahid Azmi had adopted a novel modus operandi to execute the crime by identifying their target through an e-mail account opened by co-conspirators in Bangkok, says the chargesheet filed by police.
Azmi, who was defending accused Faheem Ansari in the 26/11 trial, was shot dead by members of the infamous Bharat Nepali gang in his office on February 11. Of the ten conspirators, four had executed the killing of Azmi, according to chargesheet filed by police in the court yesterday.
"Nepali gang members had opened an email account in Bangkok and uploaded two photographs of Azmi but did not forward them to the sharp shooters in Mumbai. Instead they have saved the snaps in draft column," a crime branch official said.
"Subsequently, the user name and password details were passed on to two arrested accused Devendra Babu and Hasmukh Solanki. The duo had visited a cyber cafe in suburban Mulund,
opened the account and saw the snaps of their target," the
official added.
According to police, the conspiracy to eliminate the lawyer had been hatched by gangster Bharat Nepali in Bangkok as he believed that Azmi was defending those who betrayed the
country.
"During the probe we came across this modus operandi adopted by the gang. The accused do not want to take risk by opening an e-mail account and getting the Azmi's photographs in their own accounts," the official said.
Three months after Azmi's murder, police yesterday filed a 1200-page chargesheet against ten members of the Nepali gang
in the MCOCA court.
Of the ten accused, police have arrested four associates of Nepali -- Devendra Babu Jagtap alias JD, Pintoo Deoram Dagale, Vinod Yashwant Vichare and Hasmukh Solanki -- while six more, including Nepali and his close aide Vijay Shetty, are still absconding. The arrested four had shot dead Azmi, police added.
The accused have been booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and MCOCA, police said.
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