Probe into Mira Rd encounter

According to Kotian’s mother, her son wasn’t even remotely linked to any underworld gang and he was killed by the police deliberately at the behest of criminal Ahmed Fateh Mohammed Khan. She has claimed Rs 50 lakh as compensation and urged the court to punish the guilty.

Senior inspector of Bhayander police station P B Niphade, superintendent of Thane (rural) police Ashok Kamthe, inspector of Thane CID Pandharinath Ghuge and medical officer of Bhayander’s Primary Health Centre R M Dhotre have been made respondentparties in the petition.

The police mapped the sequence of events leading to the encounter at Mira Road thus: A complaint of extortion was filed by Alpita Construction Company’s owner, Ahmed Fateh Mohammed Khan, an accused arrested in a murder case.

According to Khan, members of the Subhashsingh Thakur gang had demanded a sum of Rs 10 lakh from him before his release from Arthur Road jail. Later, the amount was reduced to Rs 3 lakh which was to be paid after his release. But on the agreed day for payment, Khan informed the police, who laid a trap near his Mira Road office.

When a bearded person came to Khan’s office, the latter waved to the police squad, which was hiding. The bearded person then tried to open fire at the police, but Kamthe and Ghuge attacked him in a bid to protect themselves. The bearded person was injured, and he died before admission to the Primary Health Centre. Kamthe’s affidavit claims that before the relatives came to identify Kotian’s body, they didn’t know the dead person’sidentity. Police claim they opened fire at the bearded person after they sensed danger to their lives. But Kotian’s mother has a different story.

She claims one Ronnie Menezes, Bhavarlal Jain and her son had set up a firm doing catering and estate agency business. They had sold a plot at Malad to one Hanif A Mithaiwala, who paid them Rs 75,000 as first installment on June 5. Kotian took the money and went to Mira Rd, where he wanted to buy a flat. But the police near Ahmed Khan’s office mistook him as a member of the Subhashsingh Thakur gang, who had come to collect money from Khan, and killed him on the spot. Meanwhile, Mithaiwala’s affidavit also says he gave Rs 75,000 to the three partners on June 5.