In a joint operation by the North district and Special Cell, Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested four men in connection with the murder of a 35-year-old construction builder in Ballimaran area. According to the police, the accused, Shokeen Ahmad, Mustaffa, Imran and Mohd Parvez (all in the age group of 20-30 years) were hired as contract killers by a man named Amir who wanted to extort money from the businessman.
The mastermind, Amir, and one other person are still absconding. Police have recovered pistols and two mobile phones used in the crime.
On March 31 at around 11:15 pm, Faheem Ahmed was sitting with some locals near his residence in the Punjabi Phatak lane and was shot at by the accused. Captured in the CCTV footage, three of them were seen running away, said police.
According to the police, hit on his foot and back, Faheem succumbed to injuries during treatment. During the course of investigation, cops checked through the Tower Dump calls (cell phone tower catches the calls/texts sent or received by the people in the neighbourhood at the time of crime). Based on the calls made by Mustaffa to Imran and others, police traced the location of all the accused.
A raid was conducted in parts of Delhi-NCR early on Tuesday and all were apprehended, a cop said.
“During extensive interrogation, the accused informed that they were hired by Amir. They met Amir through Shahid. Eager to make quick bucks, the accused were promised Rs 16,000 to Rs 20,000 if they eliminated Faheem,” said a senior police officer.
“Since Faheem’s business was flourishing, Amir planned to extort money from other businessmen by getting him killed to instill fear among others in Ballimaran.
“Seeing Faheem grow financially with help from his partnership with Naseer, Amir roped in his distant relative Parvez and another relative Mustafa to carry out the crime,” added the officer.
While Shokeen and Mustaffa were nabbed by the Special staff of North District, Imran and Parvez were nabbed by the Special Cell, police said.
Police said that all the accused do not have a criminal background except Imran who was booked in an autolifting case in Ghaziabad.