Man Friday did Patil in

It was in early 2006 that Padamsinh Patil, 69, now a Lok Sabha member from Osmanabad, first told his man Friday, Satish Mandade, that he wanted his cousin and Congress politician Pawanraje Nimbalkar killed because of business and political rivalry, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Mandade, a businessman from Latur, took over from there. He did everything from organising money to hiring contract killers to get Nimbalkar eliminated on June 3, 2006, a CBI officer said.

But it was also Mandade who did Patil in. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) politician cracked on Saturday night when the CBI used his suspected partner-in-crime to confront him, the officer said.

Patil was then arrested, taken to hospital for medical examination, and shifted to Panvel, where a magistrate on Sunday remanded him in the agency’s custody till June 14. Public prosecutor Ejaz Khan said Patil has been charged with murder (section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) and criminal conspiracy (section 120-B).

The arrest drama, which lasted 12 hours, began on Saturday night. Patil was watching TV after dinner at the house of his son, state minister Rana Jagjitsinh, near Mantralaya when a four-member CBI team, headed by superintendent of police Amitabh Thakur, knocked on the door. It was about 9:30pm.

The officers told Patil they wanted to ask him a few questions in connection with the June 3, 2006, double murder of Nimbalkar and his driver Samad Kazi. The two were shot dead on the Mumbai-Pune expressway.

At 9:50pm, the sleuths began questioning Patil. But the MP continued to vehemently deny any role in the murder, the CBI officer said.

At about 11:45pm, the sleuths took Patil to the CBI office at Tanna House. It was there that the CBI brought in Mandade, Patil’s man Friday and alleged partner-in-crime, who was arrested last week.

The CBI then handed Patil a copy of Mandade’s confession. For the next half hour, Patil and Mandade sat face to face, with the NCP politician going through the statement.

According to the CBI, Mandade has admitted that Patil asked him to plot Nimbalkar’s murder because of political and business rivalry.

“At around 1:45am, after reading Mandade’s statement, Patil confessed to his role,” a senior CBI officer told DNA. He knew the game was up and his arrest imminent, the officer said.

But Patil tried one last trick to wriggle out of the situation. “As soon as he was arrested, he complained of chest pain,” said the officer, who was present through the interrogation. “We had expected this, and immediately called in a team of doctors from the JJ Group of Hospitals.”

The doctors told the agency that Patil had high blood pressure. The sleuths gave him an hour’s break before resuming the grilling session, the officer said.

Around 4:30am, Patil was admitted to JJ hospital. According to a source at the hospital, a reference was sent to the cardiology department of the hospital as per protocol. The senior resident doctor on duty examined Patil and found that “there was nothing in particular which warranted cardiac care”, a doctor from the department told DNA.

Still, routine blood and echo-cardiograph (ECG) tests were conducted, which only confirmed that there was nothing abnormal in Patil’s health. An angiography was not needed, the hospital source said.

At around 10am on Sunday, Patil was discharged and whisked away in a CBI van to Panvel, where he was produced in court. He was remanded him in police custody till June 14.

The CBI has so far arrested five persons in the double murder.