Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has got a price catch and with it hopes to crack a quarter-century-old murder of a Keralite aviation entrepreneur by the underworld. With the arrest of fugitive gangster Ejaz Lakdawala, wanted in connection with several extortion, attempt to murder and rioting cases, police hope to solve the mystery over the 1995 murder of Thakiyudeen Abdul Wahid on November 13, 1995.
Wahid, the managing director of East-West Airlines, hailed from Edava near Varkala in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district. He was killed when he was about to go home after a regular day at work.
Lakdawala, reportedly a former aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested by the Mumbai Police from Patna on late on Wednesday over an alleged extortion case. He was on the run for 20 years.
Wahid was behind East-West Airlines, the first scheduled private airline in the country that was launched as soon as the Indian economy opened up in 1991. The airline which commenced services in 1992 shut down in 1996 a few years after his murder.
How Wahid was done away with
Three men, one of whom was 'Chhota' Rajan’s trusted lieutenant Bunty Pandey, allegedly broke the windshield of Wahid’s car and fired 30 bullets into his body during his drive from office at Bandra to his house at around 9.30 p.m on that fateful day. His residence was about only 1 km away.
Who did it
As per the charge sheet, the accused in the case were Rohit Sharma, Joseph John D'souza, Sunil Malgorkar, Bunty Pandey and Ejaz Lakdawala.
The two who were accused by the police in the beginning of the case were exonerated in 1998. Joseph John D'souza was arrested in 1998 but was exonerated by the session court for want of sufficient evidence. He was later killed in a gunshot by encounter specialist of the police inspector Pradip Sharma.
Sunil Malgorkar was arrested along with D'souza but was let off by the court for want of proper evidence.
Notorious gangster 'Chhota' Rajan, who is considered to be the kingpin of the case, was arrested from Indonesia in 2015. He is serving his jail sentence in Delhi's Tihar jail.
Pandey, who was later arrested, too is now in Tihar jail in connection with another case. He was arrested from Vietnam in 2010 over the conspiracy over another murder case.
Rohit was killed by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang in 2000.
Both Pandey and Lakdawala were not named in the original charge sheet but were included only at a very later stage.
It was initially alleged that the police did not conduct a proper inquiry into those who were suspected in the case.
Chhota Rajan's order
D'souza had given a statement that the murder was on the basis of an instruction from 'Chhota' Rajan. During an interview with a weekly in 1996, he had confirmed the words of D'souza. The reason Rajan gave for the murder was that Wahid had close connections with Dawood.
However, Wahid's family has denied any connection with Dawood.
However, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) the foreign intelligence agency of the country, had suspected the role of Dawood in the murder based on some telephone calls intercepted in 2003. They also collected the details of the money paid to the killers for committing the murder. When Raw got some more information through phone calls intercepted in 2005, they recommended a reinvestigation. However, the Mumbai Police was reluctant to conduct reinvestigation.
Journalist Josey Joseph in his book 'A feast of Vultures- The Hidden Business of Democracy in India' has written elaborately on the mystery and the turning points in the case.
Faisal, the younger brother of Wahid, had alleged that the investigation was not in the right direction. This became clear when the police failed to take the statements of eyewitnesses. Even when we took them to the police station, the officers concerned were reluctant to take their statements. It was a powerful lobby that sabotaged the case. The real culprits are still absconding, Faizal had claimed.