NIA officer’s murder: 3 held, property dispute likely motive for killing
NIA officer Tanzil Ahmad was shot dead on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district.
Investigation agencies probing the killing of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer Mohammad Tanzil Ahmed on Wednesday detained three suspects, all of them shooters even as the police said that a property dispute might have been the motive of his murder.
Ahmad was shot dead on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district.
“The investigation has revealed that Tanzil had made some investments in property in Bijnor and nearby districts. These were basically benami investments, not in his own name. Tanzil’s property dealings led to other complications as well which were more of a personal nature,” said Uttar Pradesh’s additional director general (law and order) Daljit Singh Chowdhary.
Chowdhary added that Tanzil was considered very close to a local municipal councilor as well.
“The role of municipal councillor is under scanner. Besides, we are looking for one Muneer who has many criminal cases registered against him in western Uttar Pradesh. His interrogation is very vital,” said Chowdhary.
Muneer was known in the local circles as informer of Tanzil, according to sources.
“It is difficult to say what exactly was the nature of relationship between Tanzil and Muneer as the NIA works only on terror cases,” said Chowdhary.
Chowdhary on Wednesday met senior NIA official Sanjeev Kumar Singh at the federal investigation agency’s headquarters here as well.
“We shared details of the probe with the NIA officials,” said Chowdhary.
Singh said the UP police had some definitive clues about the murderers of the NIA officials.
The NIA sources also confirmed that Tanzil’s murder may have nothing to do with anti-terror work in the agency.
Meanwhile, giving details about the persons detained in connection with the case, a senior UP police officer said, “After a tip-off, police teams raided hideouts of the suspected shooters in Bijnor, Aligarh, Sambhal and Bulandshahar districts.”
“Three shooters allegedly involved in the killing of Ahmed were picked up and the interrogation of the trio is continuing,” he said.
Refusing to disclose the identity of the shooters the officer said, “The sleuths are trying to correlate the information provided by the suspects with the evidence collected by the district police as well as the investigation agencies. We might lift the curtain from the mysterious murder of the NIA officer soon,” he said.
