A contract to kill a friend, an abandoned car and the killers demanding the full amount, resulting in the death of the person who hired them to kill his friend — this sequence of events summed up the double murder of two property dealers who were found in Maharashtra’s Raigad after being missing since August 21.
Preliminary investigation by the police found that the incident, which stemmed from a dispute over a land deal, resulted in the deaths of property dealers Amir Khanzada and Sumit Jain from Navi Mumbai. Jain had hired a contract killer to kill Khanzada over the land deal. While Khanzada was killed, Jain too was murdered by the killers. But why was Jain also killed when he gave a contract to kill Khanzada?
It all started when Khanzada and Jain, who were residents of Nerul, left for a business meeting in a car on August 21 and went missing since then. Their families filed a missing complaint the next day and the police launched an investigation.
Utilising the GPS in their car, the police tracked the vehicle to Khopoli and found bloodstains, bullet marks and two empty cartridges inside it, said Additional Police Commissioner (Crime) Deepak Sakore. This discovery prompted the police to launch a more comprehensive probe involving eight specialised teams from different zones. The teams then found Jain’s body on August 23.
Subsequently, the police arrested five people — Vithal Baban Nakade (43), Jaisingh alias Raja Madhu Mudaliar (38), Anand alias Andrey Rajan Kuj (39), Virendra alias Go-ya Bharat Kadam (24) and Ankush alias Ankya Prakash Sitapure alias Sitafe (35). The police found Khanzada’s body on August 28 after questioning the accused, Sakore said.
During questioning, it was revealed that Jain had hired contract killers to eliminate Khanzada over a disputed land deal. Jain had purchased a 3.5-acre plot in Pali in Raigad, for around Rs 2 crore by using a fake landowner for registration, as the real owner had died. Khanzada, aware of the fraud, demanded a share in the deal from Jain, who then decided to eliminate him.
Jain offered Rs 50 lakh to his partner, Nakade, one of the accused, to hire the contract killers. The plan was to kill Khanzada and then stage a kidnapping attempt, with Jain claiming to have escaped and having himself shot in the leg.
But, in a cruel twist, the contract killers demanded the full payment of Rs 50 lakh from Jain after killing Khanzada. Suspecting foul play, the killers stabbed Jain in the leg where he had shot himself to fake the kidnapping attempt. Jain died from excessive bleeding soon after and his body was disposed of.
The police found Jain’s body by the roadside on Pen-Khopoli Road and then Khanzada’s body near Karnala Bird Sanctuary. They took the five accused into custody, Sakhore said, adding that the accused were all history-sheeters with multiple criminal cases against them, including murder and cheating.
