An hour after the police arrested Amolik, Sandeep alleged that the retired encounter specialist was only the facilitator and that the brains behind the murder were some builders from Navi Mumbai who were “exposed” by his father.
Meanwhile, the police is probing the role of a former constable, an accused in an alleged fake encounter case in which Amolik was arrested in 2003.
“An anonymous well-wisher left a CD at my residence on Saturday night, due to which I found out that my father’s killer, who was caught near the spot, was taking Amolik’s name. I don’t even know who Amolik is, but whoever he is, he was just the man who did the killing. I will not cremate my father’s body till the actual culprits are brought to book,” he said.
The copy of the CD which is available with The Indian Express shows arrested accused Venkatesh Shettiar, minutes after he was cornered, telling the police to call Amolik. He can been seen and heard telling the police to call Amolik and even gave out the former cop’s number. Shettiar also named one “Peerzade saheb”.
Interestingly, constable S M Peerzade was arrested along with Amolik for the alleged fake encounter of Baban Koyande in Ulhasnagar in 1992. While the police claimed to be unaware of this till The Indian Express contacted them, officers said inquiries would be conducted to check if Shettiar was referring to the same person.
“We are not aware of Shettiar taking Peerzade’s name after being caught but if he has, we will make inquiries while interrogating the arrested accused,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Navi Mumbai) Fatehsingh Patil.
In a letter to the Chief Minister’s office on Saturday, Sandeep had sought transfer of the probe to the Crime Branch.
“My father was the whistleblower against the FSI scam in Navi Mumbai, as at the instance of my father, a complaint was registered with the Nerul Police against some of the culprits, including high profile builders, architects, CIDCO officials and officers of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The investigation of that scam was not properly carried out by the police and so my father had filed a writ petition before the High Court for transfer of the investigation by the CBI,” Sandeep has written.