Hyderabad: The south zone police arrested three men in connection with the brutal murder on the busy Nayapul road which was pre-planned by a gang of six.
In a video of the incident which went viral, it is shown that one man was hacking Mohd Shakeer, 32, but what was not seen was that his associates were present in the crowd, flashing knives to whoever tried to intervene, police said.
The arrested were identified as Shaik Khaja Hussain alias Abdul, 30, the prime accused and murderer, Mohd. Imtiyaz alias Baba alias Robo, 30, Mohd. Ayub, 23, and Mohd. Aleem alias Ali, 30, police said, adding that the mastermind, Mohd Imtiyaz, is absconding.
Mohd Imtiyaz has 10 passenger autos, which he gives on a rental basis to auto drivers for Rs 500 per day, whereas Mohammed Shakeer, who joined the autorickshaw business about nine months ago, owns five autos, which he lends for Rs 300 per day, making him more approachable. This irked Imtiyaz and he went into losses, said the DCP, South Zone, Amber Kishore Jha.
“Apart from this, one Aqeel, who is Shakeer’s elder brother’s son, became friends with Khaja, and the both used to drink together. Shakeer, who is a caretaker of Aqeel, warned him and Khaja. On November 27, Shakeer and his friends approached Khaja near Nayapul autorickshaw stand and abused him. This led to a heated argument and the other accused interfered and tried to pacify them,” said the official.
On the same night, Khaja and Imtiyaz met and hatched a plan to eliminate Shakeer.
On November 28, they went to the autorickshaw stand in an inebriated condition and Khaja instructed the others to threaten the public if they intervened.
Based on a complaint, a case was registered under Section 302 (murder) of IPC and Khaja confessed that there were others involved.
