IAS officer out on parole, hatches murder plot

Planned to put the blame on Chautala’s family

New Delhi: **COMBO** IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar (talking to media) who was arrested with two shooters (in the left picture) in Delhi on Friday for allegedly planning the murder of an associate. PTI Photo (PTI5_1_2015_000143B)

A 55-year-old former bureaucrat, a convict and two contract killers were arrested by the crime branch for their alleged involvement in hatching a murder plot, the police said on Friday.

Sanjeev Kumar, a 1985 Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of the Haryana cadre was convicted in the infamous JBT scam along with former Haryana Chief Minister O.P. Chautala and 55 others. Kumar is currently on parole and seeking psychiatric treatment.

According to Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (crime), Kumar had hatched a conspiracy along with Shaukat Pasha, who is a convict undergoing life sentence in a murder case at Tihar jail, to kill his close friend and associate Tikka Hassan Mustafa through hired killers.

Pasha had, according to Mr. Yadav, put Kumar in touch with two sharp shooters, Taufiq and Mannan, to execute the said plot. A country-made pistol and four live cartridges were recovered from the possession of the duo post arrest, the police claimed. “Pasha accepted the contract from Kumar. Taufiq and Mannan were in constant touch with Pasha to finalise the conspiracy and were communicating with him through a mobile phone which he uses in jail,” Mr. Yadav said.

“A reliable input about the said conspiracy was received by the crime branch following which Taufiq was apprehended near the I.T. Gate in Nizamuddin and a loaded country-made pistol of .315 bore make and four live cartridges were recovered from him,” said Mr. Yadav.

Taufiq, after being put to sustained interrogation, disclosed that Pasha had conveyed a message to him and his associates Asad and Aftab to commit a murder and slightly injure Kumar at the latter’s behest.

Kumar was the next to be apprehended from near New Friends Colony in South Delhi.

“Though, initially he did not co-operate with the police later on, after sustained interrogation, he disclosed the identity of his target, his close friend and associate Tikka Hassan Mustafa. He further confessed that he had connived with Pasha to stage a drama of getting himself injured during the shootout so that later he could put the entire blame on Mr. Chautala’s family with whom he has estranged relations since he claimed to be a whistleblower,” Mr. Yadav added.