 | | INFORMER: Bismillah Zaheer Khan alias Munshi, visited the MiD DAY office yesterday. PIC/SAYED SAMEER ABEDI | The confessions of the man hired to keep tabs on Matunga builder Rashmikant Shah in Juhu throws light on how a Crime Branch team wanted to bump off the four men who were told to shoot Shah.
Bismillah Zaheer Khan alias Munshi, who visited the MiD DAY office yesterday afternoon, said he had approached gangster Nissar Zaffar for work early last year. Zaffar, who ran a gang from his stronghold near Khatau Mills in Byculla, told him to observe Shah.
However, Khan double-crossed Zaffar and informed a senior inspector of the Crime Branch’s unit 10 about the plot.
“Zaffar akela mil jayaga toh accha kaam ho jayega. Or we will have to arrest all the four gangsters,” the officer told Khan, assuring him a good reward.
Khan told MiD DAY he was surprised when he learnt that Zaffar was planning to kill Shah. The Crime Branch officer in turn deputed a constable to verify Khan’s claims. A trap was laid to get Zaffar in
isolation.
It is likely that Zaffar smelled a rat and kept off the trap, as Zaffar kept a watch on Khan too.
However, even as the Crime Branch was planning to close in on Zaffar, the Juhu police arrested him along with sharpshooters Vijay Wadkar, Qasim Qureshi and Aslam Khan on March 15, 2007, for allegedly planning to kill Shah. The Crime Branch’s effort to eliminate the gang was soon buried, after the arrests.
The police recovered the observations that Khan had written down from Zaffar. The handwriting expert’s opinion is awaited. Khan’s confession raises questions of whether the statements of the Crime Branch officer and the constable from unit 10 were recorded. Khan’s statement assumes significance in light of the fact that some key officers in the case have turned hostile and claimed that they were acting at the behest of the top brass in Mumbai police. | 
