New Delhi: Businessman Nadir Shah had “bitten off more than he could chew”, the special cell of Delhi Police seems to have concluded in their chargesheet into the sensational killing that had left the upscale locality in Greater Kailash-I shaken mid-Sept.
The chargesheet accuses jailed gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Hashim Baba to have orchestrated the killing to establish their supremacy in the ongoing turf war in Delhi.
According to police, Shah’s business partnership with Kunal Chhabra, who operated several illicit call centres in Delhi, had unwittingly drawn him into a perilous world of extortion and gang rivalry. When members of Bishnoi’s gang demanded Rs 5 crore from Chhabra, Shah boldly advised him to refuse payment, boasting of his connections in high places.
This brazen move, however, had inadvertently sealed Shah’s fate, making him a prime target for the vengeful Bishnoi gang. In a desperate bid to defuse the situation, Shah attempted to negotiate with Bishnoi, only to be rebuffed.
The situation took a dark and ominous turn when Bishnoi was taken into police custody and allegedly subjected to torture. Enraged and seeking revenge, Bishnoi blamed Shah for his ordeal and vowed to exact a heavy price, upping his demand.
Shah’s friendships with south Delhi gangsters Ravi Gangwal and Rohit Chaudhary, sworn enemies of north-east Delhi gangster Hashim Baba, had unwittingly created a complex web of rivalries and alliances. Rohit Godara, a key player in the Bishnoi gang, astutely exploited these tensions to enlist Hashim’s support in a sinister plot to eliminate Shah, sources said citing the chargesheet.
Besides Hashim, police have charged the shooters led by Madhur alias Ayaan (25) and Yogesh Raju, who were arrested a month after the murder. The investigation has revealed that gangster Bishnoi, who is lodged in a Gujarat jail, got him killed through gangster Hashim, who was in Mandoli Jail. Investigators found that Hashim made and received multiple phone calls to Bishnoi over the last two months.
To destroy evidence, he smashed his mobile phone and flushed it down the jail toilet after instructing the shooters. Police found that Hashim had deployed another set of shooters to kill Shah in Aug, but the plan was aborted at the last minute on Bishnoi’s orders.
Shah was gunned down by shooters outside his gym in Greater Kailash-I on Sept 12. The incident was captured on a CCTV camera, which showed Shah talking to his friend Dheeraj near his car when Madhur, Raju, and others appeared and fired indiscriminately. Dheeraj was also injured by splinters as he was standing right next to Shah. After the murder, the accused fled to Seelampur, changed clothes, and went off in different directions.
