The trio were given Rs1 lakh to bump off Shahid Azmi. They closely monitored Azmi’s movements for several days.
Three persons suspected to be from the Bharat Nepali gang were arrested by the Mumbai crime branch for allegedly murdering criminal lawyer Shahid Azmi last week.
The unit VI of the crime branch, led by senior police inspector Shripad Kale, activated their informer network and arrested the trio — Devendra Jagtap, 28, Pintu Bhagle, 25 and Vinod Vichare, 32 — from Mulund on Tuesday. Preliminary investigation revealed that Rs1 lakh was given to the group.
Police said Vichare who worked as a data processor with a Nariman Point-based private company collected the money and conducted the recce around Azmi’s residence and office and at the Sessions court. The recce, said police, started from February 6 and every movement of Azmi’s was closely monitored. The other two arrested accused shot Azmi in his office at Taximen’s Colony, Kurla. A third accomplice, Hasmukh Solanki, is absconding. Three pistols, three rounds of live cartridges and five mobile phones were seized from the group.
“The killing was carried out on Nepali’s orders,” said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police and crime branch chief.
“Nepali broke away from Chhota Rajan and floated his own gang. This is an attempt to establish his supremacy in the underworld,” Maria added. Nepali’s aide, gangster Bala Shetty alias Vijay Shetty, was also behind the conspiracy to kill Azmi, investigations revealed.
The police are mulling the possibility of applying the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the accused.
Criminal records of the accused reveal that Jagtap has eight cases against him including opening fire at a local artiste at a play in Chembur in 2008.
Nepali has 17 criminal cases against him, the most sensational being the murder of trade union leader Datta Samant. He and Shetty were accused of bumping off 1993 blast accused Ayub Lala and Nayeem Dongri.
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