Retired police officer held over shooting

Mumbai: A day after a prominent builder was shot dead at Vashi by two men dressed like private security guards, the Navi Mumbai police arrested a retired police officer in connection with the crime.

Samuel Amolik, who used to be an “encounter-specialist” with the Maharashtra police until he was forced to quit the force in 2003, was arrested by the police on Sunday morning, in connection with the murder of builder Sunil Kumar Lahoria (52).

Lahoria — who was attacked by two unidentified gunmen when he stepped out of his white BMW car outside his real estate firm SK Brothers Builders and Developers’ office at Vashi’s sector no 28 of Navi Mumbai — on Saturday evening succumbed to bullet wounds to the neck.

Amolik’s alleged involvement in the Lahoria’s murder came to light during a mobile phone conversation intercepted by the Navi Mumbai police investigating the crime.

Also arrested in connection with Lahoria’s murder was Venkatesh Shettiar. Both Amolik and Shettiar were on Sunday afternoon brought before a local court which remanded them to police custody until February 22.

The murder was was recorded on a CCTV camera installed at the entrance of Lahoria’s office. The police placed Shettiar under arrest soon after he was caught trying to flee. However, his accomplice managed to escape on a motorcycle.

Mobile phone conversation

Later, the CCTV footage confirmed Shettiar to be one of the accused involved in the murder with Amolik. Later, an interception of a mobile phone conversation led to the arrest of Amolik.

Specialised in the killing of underworld gangsters and criminals, Amolik had gunned as many as 40 notorious gangsters during his police service. Amolik had been suspended and later arrested by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) sleuths in 2003, after it was established that he had gunned down a gangster from Ulhasnagar, Baban Koidande, in a fake encounter in 1992.

Meanwhile, Lahoria’s family members have refused to conduct the final rites of the slain builder. “I will not conduct the final rites until the Navi Mumbai police arrest the real culprits behind the gruesome murder of my father,” Sunny Kumar, 24, said.

Talking to the media, the slain builder’s brother Sanjeev Lahoria said that the killers named seven people with whom his brother had a prolonged legal dispute.

The investigators have reason to believe that Lahoria’s business rivals — who were upset with his expose on illegal construction activities and Floor Space Index (FSI) violations in Navi Mumbai — might have had him killed.

Lahoria, who was in the news for his expose under the Right To Information Act (RTI) queries in 2011, had filed a case in the Bombay High Court over the alleged FSI violations in buildings at Khargar in Navi Mumbai, in 2011.