Mumbai police arrest RTI activist’s killers with name tattoo: ‘If anything happens to me…’ | Today’s news

This week, an RTI (Right to Information Act) activist was allegedly murdered at a spa in Mumbai’s Worli area in Maharashtra. The man, who had several criminal cases registered against him, was found with his throat slit. The murder case took a dramatic turn when a tattoo of 22 names was found on the deceased’s thigh. These were the names of his potential enemies.

Police said Gurappa Waghmare was murdered at the Soft Touch Spa in Worli, central Mumbai, on the morning of Wednesday, July 24. Police said they have so far arrested at least three suspects in connection with the crime.

The three arrested on Thursday included spa owner Santosh Sherekar – whose name was one of the 22 names written on the victim’s thighs, a police official said. Besides him, two alleged attackers were also arrested and two more people were apprehended, news agency PTI reported.

DCP Crime Branch Datta Nalawade said that the crime was reported at Worli Police Station on July 24. He said that the Crime Branch is working on the case in parallel.

It is being told that the victim is a history-sheeter. There are 8 cognizable crimes and 22 NCR cases registered against him. [non-cognizable reports] “A case has been registered against him,” Nalawade said.

hired assassins

Sharing details of the crime, the officer said that killers were hired to murder Gurappa Waghmare.

The police official said that spa owner Sherekar had allegedly given a ‘contract’ to kill Waghmare as he was fed up of Waghmare’s extortion threats. Mohammed Firoz Ansari (26) was given a contract of Rs 6 lakh to kill Waghmare.

“One of the arrested accused is the owner of the spa where the incident took place, the other two had taken a contract from the spa owner to commit the murder and carried it out,” police said.

Police solved a murder case with the help of tattoo

The officer said that some names were found tattooed on both the thighs of the deceased. Police said, “It is also tattooed that if anything happens to him, those people will be responsible for it.”

He said, “About 22 names were tattooed…”

Why was the RTI activist murdered?

According to the victim, Waghmare had been extorting money from spa owners in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Palghar since 2010 and has criminal cases of extortion, rape and molestation registered against him.

It was found that Ansari and Sherekar knew each other as Ansari also ran a spa in Nallasopara near Mumbai, which was shut down last year following a raid. “The raid was conducted following a complaint lodged by Waghmare with the authorities,” the official said.

Police told PTI that Ansari had contacted Sherekar and asked him to stop Waghmare from filing such complaints and extorting money from spa owners. Sherekar had allegedly asked him to eliminate Waghmare.

“After this, Ansari contacted Saqib Ansari, a resident of Delhi, and the conspiracy was hatched three months ago,” the police said. After recce of Waghmare for three months and studying his daily routine, the accused planned to murder him at Sherekar’s spa, the officer said.

How was the murder committed?

CCTV footage shows Waghmare outside a bar in Sion where he celebrated his birthday with his 21-year-old girlfriend on Tuesday evening. It shows two assailants wearing raincoats following him. That night, the two assailants followed Waghmare on a scooter to Sherekar’s spa.

Police found out that one of the attackers bought two gutkha packets from a paan shop near the liquor bar and paid through the UPI system. The UPI records revealed that his name was Mohammad Firoz Ansari.

Investigation revealed that Sherekar had received several calls from the phone number linked to Ansari’s UPI ID. This established a link between the two.

Firoz and Saqib Ansari entered the spa around 1.30 am on Wednesday, took Waghmare’s girlfriend to another room and then allegedly killed Waghmare with different blades of scissors. 7,000.

One blade was used to slit his throat, while the other was used to stab him in the stomach.

“Waghmare’s girlfriend claimed that she came to know about the murder at 9.30 am and informed Sherekar, who took more than two hours to inform the police,” the officer said.

accused arrested

The police had already detained Sherekar for questioning and arrested him after questioning him throughout the day. Meanwhile, Firoz Ansari was later arrested by the crime branch team from Nallasopara, while Saqib Ansari was detained along with two others on their way from Kota in Rajasthan to New Delhi on suspicion of being involved in the murder conspiracy.

A total of five people have been arrested, the official said. He said they were also investigating the role of Waghmare’s girlfriend.

(with inputs from agencies)