Cops firm on Sayama8217;s identity

Bhat also said Abu Sayama and Javed Talib Shaikh alias Javed Fawda were different persons. He said the papers of the Shivaji Park station show Abu Sayama as the brother of Javed Talib Shaikh , who was also arrested in the case. He also pointed to conflicting figures in Fawda8217;s age: while Fawda8217;s family ration card, issued in 1993, mentioned his age as 20, Rubina gave his age in themissing complaint as 18. Bhat said Fawda was picked up from the Antop Hill residence of one Maharaja Pillai, accused in connection with the Shivaji Park case, along with Pillai. If the deceased was innocent, he would have remained at his residence at Bandra, Bhat claimed.

He said there was no admissible evidence that the deceased was picked up by the police after offering prayers at a Bandra mosque two days prior to his death. The evidence recorded in this connection was based on hearsay accounts and not on an eye-witness account.

Bhat argued that the names of Fawda, along with Wasim, Rauf Raja and Rashid, were disclosed by Javed Kaliya, an accused in the Gulshan Kumar murder case. This information was issued in a memo to officers of the Criminal Intelligence Unit by Assistant Commissioner of Police L R Rao.

Although API Vasant Dhoble had admitted that he knew some of the accused named in the memo, and had also visited their residences to make enquires, counsel for petitioners had failed to elaboratehow he knew them, stated Bhat. He added that if the memo issued by Rao could not be disputed, the encounter could also not be disputed.