A local court on Sunday sent four alleged sharp-shooters, who according to investigators were hired by Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees to kill a Jamnagar-based gutka trader, to a 12-day police custody. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rajkot city police had arrested Mumbai residents Ramdas Rahane, Sandeep Shibag and Anil Ghilola, and Nashik resident Vineet Jalti from a bus near Greenland Chowkadi on the outskirts of the city on Saturday. Police had also recovered a pistol, six live cartridges, a knife and vehicle registration plates from them. Anees, who is suspected to be in Pakistan, allegedly hired the four to murder gutka trader Ashfaq Khatri over a business rivalry. Watch What Else Is making News Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot on Sunday said: “Anees’s friend Hasan Khatri used to supply Goa brand of gutka to the Gulf region. Safdar, who is Hasan Khatri’s nephew, used to be a partner in that business. However, Safdar later started his own business. His Jamnagar-based uncle Ashfaq used to export four containers of gutka every month and Safdar used to look after its sale and distribution in the Gulf countries. This affected business interests of Hasan and to recapture his lost business, Hasan contacted Anis. In turn, Anees tried to exert pressure on Safdar to do business in partnership with Hasan, but that didn’t happen. Later, Anees gave a contract of Rs 20 lakh to Rahane and the others to murder Ashfaq.” Gehlot said that Rahane was a member of Dawood’s gang and that he had been facing two cases of murder and two of attempt to murder. “They had been doing recce of Ashfaq since January this year. They had stolen a motorbike from Nasik in January and had gone to Jamnagar. Instead of shooting him to death, their plan on Saturday was to stab Ashfaq to death to make it look like assault by some locals and then escape back to Maharashtra,” said the commissioner. Meanwhile, Ashfaq was also brought to Rajkot by a team of Rajkot city police. The police sought to know about his business and exports. Police said that Ashfaq runs a factory of producing gutka and that he has been exporting this product to the Gulf countries for the last few years.
