THREE days after police informer Salim Ahmed Siddiqui (40) was killed, along with his wife, by a speeding dumper, his family members allege that he had been receiving threats for the last two weeks.
His cousin, Roshan Ali told Newsline that two weeks before the accident, Salim had received threatening calls on his cell phone from an unknown PCO landline number. “He must have received such threats earlier also, but he never discussed work at home and hence, we were largely ignorant about such things,” he said.
Thirteen years ago, Salim was injured in a similar accident.
“Then, Salim was travelling with two police officials in a car and was passing through Suman Nagar, Chembur, when a water-tanker rammed in the car, killing two police officials and seriously injuring Salim. He was admitted to a hospital for 22 days and had a steel rod implanted in his leg,” said his mother Mumtaz Begum.
Salim happens to be the fourth major police informer to get killed in the last 10 months. Salim, who was known as Salim Khabri in the circles of various law enforcement agencies, could have been targeted by the drug mafia or by the underworld members, said the police. But the police are not sure about Saturday’s incident. “We are still not sure if it was an accident,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Deven Bharti.
They are exploring the possibility whether the act was camouflaged as an accident, the police said.
Sources said that it was Salim’s tip-off which had lead to arrest of Bollywood actor Fardeen Khan in the narcotics case. The police is also investigating role of a south-Mumbai based oil mafia, who has more than two dozen cases of oil pilferage, smuggling and robbery of consignments from the Mazagaon docks registered against him, in connection with Salim’s accident.
And while Bharti claims that Mumbai Police is “very protective” about its informants, encounter specialist Police Inspector Pradeep Sharma, a veteran of 108 encounter killings of gangsters, believes that measures need to be taken to keep informers away from the media glare and making their identities public.
“The only effective way to protect police informers is to keep them away from being exposed to the media or the public,” he said. And though his counterpart, Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar of the Anti Extortion Cell of the crime branch, feels that the job of informers is of high-risk, it is for the higher officials to decide about their protection.
“It is a fact that police informers face dangers. However, I cannot comment on whether any action should be taken by the police for protecting informers. It’s for the department to take any decision,” he said.
In a span of 10 days, October 16, 2006 and October 26, 2006, Sharma lost two of his top informers, Amjad Khan and Narsimha Nagappa Modi alias Narsi Mama to the underworld.
On May 28, Salaskar lost his key informer Sukesh Shetty, a former associate of gangster Hemant Pujari in a case of revenge killing. Those behind this killing are yet to be arrested. Salim is survived by his three children, Minaz (13), Muskan (8) and Sameer (16), a mentally challenged boy. “Salim had been rewarded on various occasions by the police and was the bread earner of the family,” said his mother.