Slowly but surely, noose is being tightened around the police officers connected to renegade Naxalite turned gangster Nayeemuddin.
So far the Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials investigating into Nayeem-related cases have not revealed if any police officers’ names cropped up in the statements of the accused they had arrested so far. Interestingly, most of them confirmed that Nayeem was regularly in touch with some police officers through different modes of communication, mostly mobile phones.
Out of the arrested persons, Ismail emerged as one of the crucial witnesses in the case. Codenamed by Nayeem as ‘KCR’, Ismail had been his trusted aide for long. Police sources said Ismail was Nayeem’s personal driver and accompanied him during most of his journeys. Sources maintain Ismail was driving the Ford Endeavour in which Nayeem travelled on the day when he was killed in an exchange of fire with the police on the outskirts of Shadnagar town in Mahabubnagar district. For some reasons, this was not brought on official record.
In police custody
Many in police circles believe he was one of the two persons whose faces were masked and were seen being taken away from the spot of encounter in the TV news channels footage. It is not yet clear how and when this driver went to Charla of Khammam district, but he was formally arrested there.
Vanasthalipuram police of Rachakonda Commissionerate brought him to the city on prisoner’s transit warrant and grilled him. Barring SIT officials and an official investigator, no other police officer — even from the top rung of the commissionerate — was allowed to speak with him.
Confirms nexus
Sources claim that Ismail confirmed the nexus between police officers and Nayeem. “I can make out Nayeem was speaking to police officers during his telephonic conversations. But not sure about their names since he had code names even for them,” he was quoted as saying by some investigators.
But Ismail is not the only accused in the case. Several other accused had revealed names of police officers linked to Nayeem. They include a retired Additional Superintendent of Police and another officer of the same rank presently in service. As they spilled beans about police officials, investigators are building up the case and are likely to bring these names on record after gathering ‘evidence’.
