Police nab trio for murder of witness

Mumbai: A week after the key witness in the 2011 Keenan Santos-Reuben Fernandez double murder, Avinash Solanki (38), alias, Bali, was found mysteriously killed, the MIDC police station in Andheri has solved the case and arrested three people, including his business partner. The trio was apprehended within a week by special police teams from Uttar Pradesh, where they were hiding following the murder.

They have been identified as Nilesh Shukla (38), Vanshbahadur Singh, alias, Jagga (48) and Ankit Dube (19), who murdered Solanki over monetary and other reasons.

“After the murder came to light police teams received information that the accused had fled to Uttarakhand. When the teams reached there, they received information that the trio had left for Haridwar and Rishikesh. However, they were finally traced to Gomti Nagar in Lucknow,” said Navinchandra Reddy, deputy commissioner of police, (Zone X).

Investigations following their arrest revealed that Shukla and Solanki were at loggerheads after Shukla found that the deceased was trying to get close to his wife and a female friend. The Mumbai police had arrested Shukla, who is also the victim’s business partner, in 2008 in a narcotics case following a tip off by Solanki. But they got along later, officials said.

Investigators stated that the monetary dealing took place subsequently, and Solanki allegedly did not return the money. This led to a squabble between them and a murder plot was hatched. The trio was produced before a competent court, which remanded them to police custody till September 1 for further investigation.

On August 20, two days after he went missing, Solanki’s body was found with multiple stab wounds all over, including his parts. His friends went looking for him at Apollo Industrial Estate on Mahakali Caves Road after they were informed that Solanki had gone to meet Shukla, his partner in an import-export business.

Solanki was a key witness in the Santos- Fernandez murder. The duo, was stabbed to death by a group of men when they tried to protect the girls, who were with them from being harassed and molested.