Abu Bakr murder: Cops try to zero-in on target 2

On Tuesday last,Syed Bilal Mustafa Ali (29) and Indra Bahadur Khatri (27) had pumped six bullets into Abu Bakr oustide Kaskar’s residence Damarwala Building on Pakmodia Street in Nagpada and fled. They were nabbed after a dramatic chase by local residents who handed them over to police.

On Friday,Crime Branch chief Himanshu Roy claimed that Abu Bakr was not the only target and another person had been pointed out to the duo with instructions to kill him,too. The second target was not present at the spot when the attack was executed.

Investigators have also gone back to an interview said to have given by Chhota Rajan to a television news channel following the attack in which,claiming responsibility for the attack,Rajan said that an associate of Abu Bakr,named Haneef Talwar,was also target.

Police sources said preliminary investigations have not yeilded much in this regard.

“There has been little headway so far with regard to the second target. We have not been able to identify any man by the name of Haneef Talwar in that area. It is too early to say whether Rajan’s statements or such a person even existing,are true. There are people with similar sounding names in the area. We are verifying their antecedents,” said an officer involved in the investigations,who did not wish to be named.

The police are still trying to locate three accomplices of the two arrested. Two of those wanted have been identified only as Umed alias Rehman and Raju.

Soon after Abu Bakr’s murder,the police had said that such a daring attack near the Dawood gang’s stronghold could mean a rival gang was giving a message of its strength. However,police sources later revealed that a dispute between Umed and Abu Bakr was the motive,as Umed feared he would be murdered unless he killed Abu Bakr first.