Cops can’t trust their eyes & ears

For long, they have been the eyes and ears of the Mumbai police. But what happens when the ‘good old khabri’ turns against the men he worked for?

For long, they have been the eyes and ears of the Mumbai police. But what happens when the ‘good old khabri’ turns against the men he worked for?

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Police informers, once the most reliable and crucial source of intelligence inputs for the city police, are now becoming a liability and an embarrassment for law enforcers. Many of them are turning into law-breakers and manipulating the system they have come to understand so well.

Last week, informer Afzal Khan alias Afzal Paani tried to take the Bandra police for a ride by giving them a ‘tip-off’ about an armed person coming to Carter Road on May 9.

The police sprung into action and arrested one Riyaz Kashmiri, 40, with a revolver, a chit with two names and two photographs.

During questioning, Kashmiri readily ‘confessed’ that two men from Kutch had hired him to carry out a robbery and had given him two revolvers for the same.

Suspecting something amiss, the police interrogated him further. Kashmiri reportedly cracked under pressure and revealed that Khan had sent him to Carter Road and then informed the police to frame the two Kutch-based men.

According to police sources, Khan was allegedly paid by a third party who wanted the two men behind bars.

Khan, who is currently on the run, has been booked in a case of Arms Act. “When an informer gives a tip-off, it makes sense to first see if he is connected to the matter. There are occasions when some just try to portray themselves as police informers and hobnob with the police to wield some influence,” said an officer from the crime branch on condition of anonymity. “An informer may try to use the police when they are in trouble. At times that is the only reason they stay in touch. One needs to be careful in dealing with informers.”

Abdul Salaam Naqwa, 42, was another trusted aide who tried to outwit the police. The Ghatkopar police would rely on him to get information on stolen four-wheelers.

However, after the arrest of one Jagtar Singh Sonthe, 40, on April 13, the police found that Naqwa was himself part of the gang that had stolen heavy motor vehicles from the eastern suburbs. He was arrested three days later.

An officer privy to the investigation said: “If an informer has committed a petty crime, one would try to ensure that he does not face any strict action. But Naqwa was involved in making away with dumpers worth more than a crore of rupees.

“We later realised that he would come to us regularly find out if we were able to track down any of the vehicles he had stolen.”

KMM Prasanna, deputy commissioner of police, zone 9, said, “It’s not necessary that the informers are small-time criminals. They can be people who are present in neighbourhoods, hotels, bars or any place where a probable crime may be discussed. But one has to be careful since it is possible that they may deliberately misinform us to go to one place to ensure that there is less security at another place where a crime is planned.”

Prasanna said an officer should never have blind faith in his informer and must carry out a background check.

Casestudies | The renegades

April 4, 2009: Irfan Chindi, a police informer, was stabbed to death in Nagpada. Underworld sources attributed Chindi’s death to his association with a gambling giant and the betting syndicate in the Nagpada-Dongri-Agripada areas. Sources said that his success in these areas went to his head and he rubbed some people the wrong way, which ultimately led to his downfall. Chindi was regarded as a top-level and one of the most trusted informers to the several police officers, including late Vijay Salaskar. He was responsible for providing information that led to the killing and arrests of several persons associated with the gangs of Dawood, Chhota Rajan, and Ashwin Naik.

June 25, 2010: The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) arrested two persons and recovered a huge cache of arms that the agency claimed was to be used to revive the influence of Chhota Shakeel-Dawood Ibrahim network in the city. Nasir Ahmed Shaikh, 35, and Ali Hasan Quereshi, 64, were arrested in the case with 12 firearms.
The ATS had first claimed that Quereshi had several cases against him including murder, kidnapping and rioting and he was trying to revive the underworld’s influence in the city. However, the case soon turned over its head as it turned out that Quereshi was an informer and had been framed by another informer who owed him money.

January 18, 2011: The Malad police arrested seven people, including an ATS informer, after explosives were seized from a garage. The matter later turned out to be a property dispute.
Rashid Khan and his brothers Salim, Hanif and Hafiz were the owners of the garage on Malad Link Road. In October 2010, Rashid and his son sold the property to Mehmood and Irfana Khan for Rs35 lakh. Rashid’s brother registered a case against him, Irfana and Mehmood. To get revenge, Irfana decided to get Rashid’s brothers implicated in a false case with the help of her brother Sajid, an informer. Sajid and his friend procured explosives from Malegaon, planted it in the garage and then informed the police.