The Mumbai police crime branch on Thu-rsday submitted the char-gesheet that ran into more than 1,000 pages against four accused and six others who are wanted in the killing of defence lawyer Shahid Azmi in February. Gangster Bharat Nepali has been named as the prime conspirator of the murder, which he had allegedly planned from Bangkok.
The crime branch has invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the accused Devendra Babu Jagtap alias JD, Pintoo Deoram Dagale, Vinod Yashwant Vichare and Hasmukh Solanki. According to crime branch officials, the murder was executed on the instructions of Nepali and his associate Vijay alias Baba Shetty who had paid Rs 1 lakh as contract money to the killers. The final report, which is 1,224 pages long, has listed a total of 91 witnesses of whom some are eyewitnesses. They include the peon, who identified the shooters who had shot at Azmi from point-blank range. The chargesheet also contains technical details about how the wanted accused gave the assailants details about the target via email, which they opened at a cyber café in Mulund. The several statements recorded by the police, the technical and ballistic evidence and the testimony of the eyewitnesses form the basis of the police’s case.
Nepali, who was allegedly first affiliated to the Chhota Rajan gang, is believed to have separated, and ordered the killing to establish himself as a ganglord. Since the assailants are repeat offenders, the police invoked the MCOCA on March 17, against the four accused.