Javed’s wife told us Pak national spent one night at their home: Pune police

He said Javed had used the passport issued from Mumbai to go to Dubai in 1998 to work for four years. As for the passport issued from Kochi in his original name, he used it to go to Oman for a fortnight this year.

Jadhav said they had also recovered a video cassette containing footage of Gujarat riots with Hindi commentary and an unused pre-paid mobile card from his house.

In a twist to the already murky tale, investigations also revealed that Javed had a third alias — Sayyed Abdul Wahid — which he used while purchasing a flat at Kalas Coop Housing Society and to run a garment and perfume shop. The police also found a secondary school certificate which showed Javed Shaikh had cleared the SSC exam from Hume School at Byculla, Mumbai in 1988.

But Jadhav said it appeared to be a forged one as documents found from his house revealed that Pranesh Pillai changed his religion and became Javed Shaikh only in 1991 while the marriage certificate of 1995 said he had married Sajada Inamdar. Though the police have not been able to establish any connection between Javed and the Mumbra girl Ishrat Jahan Shaikh, Jadhav said he (Javed) had lived in Mumbra from 1995 to 1998 before he left for Dubai.

He said Javed along with wife and three children had also been to Kochi on May 25 this year and after returning had left with his family to Ahmednagar on June 9. On June 11, Javed left Ahmednagar and told Sajada that he was going to Mumbai. Incidentally, Fayyaz Shaikh, a local motor mechanic who is believed to have provided Javed with the blue Tata Indica in which the four were travelling at the time of the encounter, is a cousin of Javed’s wife. Jadhav said they were questioning Fayyaz.