Nagpur: The city police on Tuesday alerted Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after unearthing the plot behind the murder of 72-year-old Eknath Nimgade in 2016. City cops alleged the Rs5 crore supari or contract killing was carried out by an interstate gang, including a sharpshooter from Uttar Pradesh. The city police crime branch has already rounded up nine out of 14 suspects for questioning.
A scooter-borne suspect had pumped more than half dozen bullets into the senior citizen at Lal Imli Chowk. The case had been handed over to the CBI by the high court after a petition by his son Anupam, towards the end of 2016. However, even the premiere investigating agency had been unable to find a clue. Initially, Anupam had said his father was murdered by builder-politican nexus over a property dispute on Wardha road worth crores.
Now, city police chief Amitesh Kumar has handed over to CBI a list of 14 suspects, including the alleged plotter Ranjeet Saphelkar, and also handed over some suspects to CBI team for questioning. The cops have, though, not revealed the motive yet.
Kumar said it’s up to the CBI now to find out more details about the murder, including the motive and the mastermind who paid Rs5 crore to eliminate the senior citizen. “Around Rs1.75 crore had already changed hands for the murder,” said the CP. He attributed the detection to ‘increased flow of information’ after dedicated operations led to inquiries into around 11,000 criminals.
The CP, who was flanked by Addl CP Sunil Phulari and DCP Gajanan Rajmane during a press conference, said Saphelkar had assigned Sharad Hate alias Kalu to plan the murder. Kalu had got in touch with Nawab Ashrafi alias Nabbu and Mushtaq Ashrafi to execute it.
“Initially, Rs20 lakh were given to the executors but as there was no progress, Hate had roughed up Nabbu urging him to complete the ‘task’ as soon as possible. Nabbu and others had roped in Raja POP, Parvez and Baba for the final assault. These three had firearms with them. The plan was that Raja and Parvez would fire while Baba would stop Nimgade from escaping,” said the top cop, who has taken up several long pending murder cases.
The CP said the executors had deployed men at various points between Kamal Chowk and Tehsil to relay the movements of Nimgade on the day of the murder. “City police team is now in north India to nab the other suspects, including Parvez from Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
It’s learnt Raja was in Chhindwara jail after being arrested for a murder. He was brought to the city over his alleged role in a case of dacoity, and also interrogated in Nimgade murder case.