Murdered police informer Guru Wagmare had 22 names of enemies tattooed on thighs

Interestingly, one of the names was of spa owner Santosh Sherekar—one of the three accused arrested for Guru Waghmare’s murder.

MUMBAI: Sometimes dead men do tell tales. While examining the body of their informer Guru Wagmare, who was brutally murdered in the wee hours of Wednesday night at a spa, the police found an intriguing detail: 22 names tattooed on his thighs and a declaration that those people should be held responsible if anything happened to him. Interestingly, one of the names was of spa owner Santosh Sherekar—one of the three accused arrested for Waghmare’s murder on Thursday.

Murdered police informer had 22 names of enemies tattooed on thighs

Apart from Sherekar, the two other alleged assailants have been identified as Mohammad Firoz Ansari, 26, and Shakib Ansari, 28. The crime branch has also detained two suspects in Kota in Rajasthan who were in touch with the accused at the time of the murder.

Police officials said that Waghmare also left behind a diary in which he used to write down his daily activities. “If his day was bad, he would use a red pen to describe it, including the names of the people he fought with,” said an officer. “He would use a green pen if his day was good and a blue pen for normal days.” Interestingly, the diary—maintained from 2014—also mentions the names of the spas from whose owners he had extorted money.

Waghmare’s extortion shenanigans proved to be his undoing. Fed up with the constant demands and harassment, Sherekar decided to get him eliminated and entrusted the job to Firoz Ansari for a payment of ₹6 lakh. Firoz roped in his friend Shakib Ansari from Delhi. Police officials said that as per their preliminary probe, an amount of ₹4 lakh was already paid to the assailants.

Firoz, a resident of Nalasopara, was more than a hired hitman. The owner of a spa himself, he had also had run-ins with Waghmare, who had lodged multiple police complaints against his spa and forced him to close it down a year earlier. Firoz knew that Waghmare, under the guise of an RTI activist, had complained against several other spa owners in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane as well. “When he met Sherekar a few months ago, both discussed Waghmare’s extortion racket,” said a crime branch official. “Sherekar asked Firoz to find ‘a solution’ and said he would bear the expenses.”

Firoz called Shakib 10 days before the crime and instructed him to start following Waghmare. The duo bought a pair of scissors and broke them into two parts. “One part was used to stab Waghmare and the other to slit his throat,” said a crime branch officer.

Waghmare celebrated his 50th birthday on July 17, and on Tuesday threw a party at a bar in Sion for his 24-year-old female friend, who worked in Sherekar’s spa, and two other staffers. All four returned to the spa by Waghmare’s car. Firoz and Shakib followed the car on a scooter.

The manager and other staff left for their homes while Waghmare and the 24-year-old spa employee went in. “Around 1.30 am on Wednesday, the assailants entered the spa, locked the woman in a room and stabbed Waghmare multiple times in another room. They also slit his throat before fleeing from the spot half an hour later,” said a crime branch official.

The assailants then went to a Kandivali spa where they removed their raincoats and shoes, dumped the scissors and left the scooter behind. They then went to Nalasopara, from where Shakib and two others, whose role is yet to be ascertained, boarded the Garib Rath Express in Virar to Delhi, said deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade of the crime branch.

Elaborating on how they cracked the crime, Nalawade said that the CCTV footage showed two persons in raincoats moving suspiciously near the Sion bar. “In the ensuing footage, they were also found following Waghmare’s vehicle,” he said. “One of them was seen paying at a paan shop near the Sion bar. We inquired with the shop owner and got his GPay details which led us to Firoz.”

A crime branch team then got Firoz’s call data records based on his mobile phone location near the bar in Sion and spa in Worli and also his calls to Sherekar. He was picked up from Nalasopara.

Firoz revealed the identities of the others involved in the crime, after which Shakib was arrested. The police are also questioning Waghmare’s 24-year-old woman friend. Nalawade said the police had seized the raincoats, scissors, shoes and a scooter from Kandivali.

Waghmare, known in the police force as Chulbul Pandey, a devil-may-care character from the Hindi film ‘Dabang’, was a Vile Parle resident with a wife and 24-year-old son. For the last 15 years, he identified himself as a RTI activist and used to file RTI applications mainly against spas in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. He would move around in a Hyundai Aura car, with the words ‘Kayda aur Suvyavastha’ (Law and Order) written over it. There are eight FIRs and 22 non-cognisable cases registered against him in the city for serious offences like rape, molestation and extortion.