Distinctive cap helped cops trace murder accused

Had Riyaz Khan,one of the four accused in the Bandra seafront mugging,not worn his favourite green fez cap when he and his friends allegedly robbed and stabbed a teenager on Saturday night,the Bandra police may never have been able to crack the case. Khan,a resident of the Nargis Dutt Nagar slums,was identified and tracked after Swati Shirke,the sole witness to the fatal stabbing of her friend Rushabh Yadav (19),told the police about the cap worn by one of the accused.

Senior Police Inspector Samad Shaikh from the Bandra police station said,“Swati told our officers that one of the accused was wearing a green fez cap with a distinctive white design embroidered on it. On getting this information and description of the design,we activated our information network.”

When police informers were told to look for a youth wearing the said cap,the police got to know about Khan. “Acting on the information,we tracked and picked up Khan and his friends,who later confessed to the crime. All four accused are drug addicts and have prior cases of theft against them. Even at the time they were brought to the police station,they seemed inebriated,” said Shaikh.

The other three have been identified as Saddam Moinuddin Siddique,Umer Dadamiya Shaikh and Javed Feroz Choudhary,all aged between 19 and 20.