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'My husband was killed in fake encounter'

Pushpa, the wife of Suresh Waghmare alias Dadu, who was allegedly killed in an encounter with the Bombay police last week, has submitted a memorandum to Maharashtra Director-General of Police Arvind Inamdar demanding an inquiry into the incident.

Waghmare was killed at Thakkar Complex in Mira Road near Bombay on January 4. The police claim he belonged to the Chhota Rajan gang.

In her letter to the DGP, Pushpa claimed that the encounter was a fake -- the police murdered her husband, who did not even possess a gun.

Giving details, she said her husband was accompanying her and their one-and-a-half-year-old son to the doctor when some policemen in a white Maruti Gypsy intercepted them. She was asked to wait while the policemen talked to him about a cash transaction. She heard them mentioning Rs 1 million. She was later asked to go home. The police said her husband would be with her in two hours.

The next thing she heard about Waghmare was that he was killed in an encounter, the memorandum said.

Pushpa said her husband did not possess any weapon and there were no signs of damage to his vehicle, as was usual in encounters. She also pointed out that her husband received four bullet injuries, three on the chest and one on his temple, which left only a small wound.

"If it was an encounter, the bullet would have been shot from far, giving a larger surface area to the wound," she said.

She identified Inspector Tushar Kadam as one of the three involved in the incident. A case had been registered against Kadam at the Tardeo police station for his involvement in a financial irregularity, she alleged.

Alleging that it was a case of extortion at the hands of the police, Pushpa said her husband, a real-estate agent, was receiving telephone calls from someone called Mario demanding money. He had not been in a position to pay up. The calls come even now. The caller now threatens her not to proceed further in the case, she said.

Waghmare was arrested after the 1992 communal riots in the city along with 18 others under the now-defunct Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and the National Security Act and was detained in Nasik jail for a month. He was later released for lack of evidence.

He applied for a revolver licence in 1994 but could not purchase it after it was granted. He had applied again after he received extortion calls.

The DGP assured Pushpa that he would personally look into the matter.

UNI

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