Only Plan-C clicked for Shahid Azmi killers

The three men, who allegedly killed Shahid Azmi, had initially planned to bump him off near the sessions court at Kala Ghoda, police said on Wednesday.

“But they dropped the ideasince there is heavy police deployment in the area,” said a crime branch officer. “They realised that it would be very difficult for them to flee from the place after the shootout.”

Devendra Jagtap, 28, Pintu Bhagle, 25 and Vinod Vichare, 32, were arrested by the crime branch officers from Mulund on Tuesday. The three are suspected to be from the Bharat Nepali gang and were reportedly paid Rs1 lakh to kill Azmi.

“They also thought of attacking him at his residence, but Azmi did not meet people at home,” the officer said.

A week before Azmi was killed, Jagtap allegedly called him from a PCO. He said he was accused of murder and wanted Azmi to defend him. Azmi told him to come to his office, the officer said.
The police are planning to book the three under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Meanwhile, an organisation called Bharat Bachao Andolan and Azmi’s brother Mohammad Arif Azmi called a press conference at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh office on Wednesday. They alleged that the Pune blast was an attempt to cover up Azmi’s murder.

They claimed that the blast was orchestrated by officials of the Research and Analytical Wing (R&AW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Mohammad said: “Shahid was a good lawyer. Now, my other brother, Khalid, who also is an advocate, will fight criminal cases like him.”

“Even Abhinav Bharat, which is a Hindu radical outfit, had used RDX and ammonium nitrate in the Malegaon blast, but nobody asks about that,” said activist Firoze Mithiborewala. “The case has come to a standstill after the death of ATS chief Hemant Karkare.”