Fugitive Nepali ordered Azmi murder from Bangkok: cops

Sources said the police recently got confirmation of Nepali’s whereabouts after Hasmukh Solanki,one of the four arrested for Azmi’s murder,divulged that Nepali had emailed him the lawyer’s photographs.

“We now know for certain that Bharat Nepali is running his operations from a base in Bangkok. Hasmukh Solanki told us he had been sent two recent photographs of Azmi on his e-mail from a gmail account used by Bharat Nepali. The IP address was traced to Bangkok,” said a Crime Branch officer.

Solanki was arrested on March 10,after Devendra Baburao Jagtap alias JD,Pintu Devram Dhagle and Vinod Yashwant Vichare on February 16. The police say they had got a contract of Rs 1 lakh from Nepali and another gangster,Bala Shetty.

The motive,the police suspect,is connected with Nepali’s efforts to establish his own group. Nepali has worked with Chhota Rajan’s gang but the police say they have reports that suggest internal fighting in the gang has resulted in Nepali now trying to forge a group on his own.

Nepali,whose real name is Bhagwant Singh,hails from Uttar Pradesh. Before joining the underworld,he was a driver in the Army’s artillery division. Recruited in 1983,he was posted in Jammu and Kashmir as part of the 95 Field Regiment,and discharged in 1994 on medical grounds.

He settled in Chembur,Rajan’s stronghold,and gradually rose through the ranks of the gang. In 1998,Rajan allegedly ordered Nepali to kill parliamentarian Mirza Dilshad Beg,due to the rivalry between the Rajan and Dawood Ibrahim gangs.

More recently,Nepali claimed responsibility for last month’s murder of media businessman Jameem Shah in Kathmandu.