Six more held for planting explosives

A day after a man was arrested for allegedly explosives outside a garage in Malad (West) to frame his three brothers, the police have arrested six more people in the property dispute case.

A day after a man was arrested for allegedly explosives outside a garage in Malad (West) to frame his three brothers, the police have arrested six more people in the property dispute case.

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One of the accused, Sajid Shaikh, 29, is an informant from Malegaon who used his contacts to mislead them, the police said.

Besides Sajid, the police have arrested Rashid Khan, 54, his son Imran, 28, Mehmood Khan, 45, his wife Irfana, 40, her brother Shakil Khan, 39, and Malegaon resident identified only as Maqsood.

For the last six years, Rashid and his brothers Salim, Hanif and Hafiz were involved in a dispute over the property.
In October 2010, Rashid and his son sold the garage to Mehmood and Irfana for Rs 35 lakh, without consulting his brothers. In November 2010, when the couple, accompanied by Rashid and Imran, went to take possession of the property, they had a confrontation with Rashid’s brothers.

Salim, Hanif and Hafiz registered a case of assault against their brother and Irfana, who were arrested by the Bangur Nagar police.

On December 31, 2010, Irfana, who was nursing a grudge, told Rashid, Imran and her brother Shakil to come to her Malad residence. Shakil also roped in his friend Sajid, a police informant.

“At Irfana’s home they hatched a plan to implicate Rashid’s three brothers so that they would end up behind bars and they would get the property,” said Ramrao Pawar, additional commissioner of police (north region).

Sajid, who was promised Rs 1 lakh for helping Irfana, took Maqsood’s help to get “explosives” from Malegaon and brought them to the city by road on January.

“The explosives comprised gunpowder, nails, two packets of black bearing, black powder and three bottles of chemicals. We have sent the material for chemical analysis,” said Pawar.

Sajid, Imran, Mehmood and Maqsood, who were on two motorbikes, kept the gunny bags containing the explosives outside the garage. Sajid then informed a senior police officer a group of people were hatching an attack and had explosives.

But a tea vendor, who saw them place the bags, informed Salim, Hanif and Hafiz, and they assumed that their brother had performed black magic and disposed of the bags in a creek behind Inorbit Mall.

The police later retrieved the bags. Mehmood has more than 16 cases against him, including murder, extortion and kidnapping. His wife too has several cases registered against her.