?Padgha murder case solved?

The killers of alleged police informer Narsingh Nagappa Modi, who was clubbed to death outside an eatery at Padgah, Thane, on October 26, had precise information about his movements. According to the Crime Branch (CB), the assassins knew the exact time of his arrival at the place.

The trigger for the murder, said sources, could have been that Modi had sometime back allegedly stripped and beaten one of his killers, Jagdishchandra Singh (now absconding), who was a rival in his lucrative oil-smuggling business, over a dispute regarding the auction of a truck-servicing station near Sewree to the deceased’s nephew a year ago. Nepali arranged for a contract killing of Modi on the actual payment of only Rs. 10,000 though he had promised Rs 20,000 more. Modi was allegedly affiliated to the Chotta Rajan gang but had deserted it a few years ago. 

These facts were disclosed in course of the investigations into the case carried out by Mumbai Crime Branch (CB), which on Thursday `cracked’ the case by arresting Modi’s four alleged killers; the arrested accused were later handed over to the custody of the local Padgha police, with which the case was registered.       

CB’s property cell, led by senior police inspector Arun Chavan, on Thursday arrested from the suburbs of Dongri and Bhandup the four `killers’ Ramakant Ramanuj Tiwari alias Munna(43), Abdul Ahmed alias Batla(45), Shailesh Yadav(20), and Santosh Aawji(23). The police are now looking for four other absconding accused in the case, including alleged mastermind Jagdish, his associate Prem Nepali, and the man who gave exact information to the killers on the deceased’s movements. The accused have several cases of assaults against them.

The police have seized from Munna the Qualis that was used as a getaway vehicle by the killers; when asked if it was true that the fingerprints found inside Modi’s Tata Sumo matched with those of Jagdish, CB (detection)’s Deputy Commissioner of police Dhananjay Kamlakar said, "we are checking these details”. 

Kamlakar added that "Narsingh was killed by Jagdish because they had a yearlong dispute regarding a truck service station-cum-tea stall at Kolsa bunder near Sewree. Both had frequent confrontations regarding this service station and had lodged complaint against each other with the local police”.

According to Chavan, the lease of this service station, like others in the area, are auctioned to a lessee. ``Jagdish was confident that the he will get the lease but it finally landed up with his rival Nagappa’s nephew. Jagdish felt Nagappa had cheated him by depriving him with the lease in an unfair manner

According to the police, Jagdish had promised Rs. 20,000 to one of the killers but did not give him. He did pay Rs.10, 000 to one of the killers though. Two others had done it for `free as they were his associates’.

When asked if the Chotta Rajan gang was involved in the murder since Modi was a witness in the case involving the seizure by CB of arms and ammunition worth a crore at the JNPT last May, which was allegedly sent by Rajan’s aide Bharat Nepali, Kamlakar said "at this juncture we do not think that Rajan’s gang is involved, Padgha police will look into it”.

On October 16, another police informer Amjad Khan, who had tipped off the CB about the JNPT seizure, was allegedly killed by members of Ejaz Pathan and DK Rao, two top lieutenants of Rajan.