’93 blast case approver arrested for hoax call to police control room

“After his release, Qureshi was making an honest living as an auto driver. He has had no criminal record before or after that (March 1993 bombings),” senior inspector Shrimant Shinde said.

Mumbai A 52-year-old man, who wanted to teach two of his relatives a lesson for refusing to buy him liquor, called up the police control room claiming that he was forced by them to kill BJP leader Ashish Shelar. When a police team traced his call and zeroed in on him at Bandra East, he was found in an inebriated condition.

At 9pm on Wednesday, the control room received a call. Qureshi told the dispatcher that two men were forcing him to shoot Shelar. “I don’t want to do this, but Pervez and Javed are forcing me to do this. I need help,” he further told the police. The cops kept him on the call long enough to track down his exact location before sending a team from the Nirmal Nagar police to the location. (Image for representation)

The caller – identified as Manzoor Ahmed Mohammad Qureshi – was one of the accused in the 1993 Bombay blast case. His allegedly carried some of the weapons to Sanjay Dutt’s house along with Abu Salem. He had, however, turned an approver and was released from prison in 2005, after spending around nine years behind bars.

“After his release, Qureshi was making an honest living as an auto driver. He has had no criminal record before or after that (March 1993 bombings),” senior inspector Shrimant Shinde said.

At 9pm on Wednesday, the control room received a call. Qureshi told the dispatcher that two men were forcing him to shoot Shelar. “I don’t want to do this, but Pervez and Javed are forcing me to do this. I need help,” he further told the police. The cops kept him on the call long enough to track down his exact location before sending a team from the Nirmal Nagar police to the location.

The police found him sleeping in a drunken state. He was brought to the police station and during the investigation, he informed the police that the two men he named in the call were his nephews. “They had refused to give him the money that he needed to buy alcohol earlier that day,” senior inspector Shrimant Shinde said.

After he confessed to the intention of framing his relatives out of a grudge, the police booked him under section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Qureshi was produced in the court on Thursday morning and remanded to police custody till March 5.