Team Herald
PANJIM: How did Siddiqui alias Suleman Khan, wanted in multiple cases of land-grabbing, manage to break out of the Crime Branch lockup in Ribandar without being detected by the security net that should been deployed?
An O Heraldo investigation threw up a glaring lapse in the security protocol, with sources claiming that the lock-up where Siddiqui was kept hadn’t been approved for lodging any arrested person, let alone a wanted undertrial like Siddiqui.
Several other lapses have come to the fore. For example, the jail allegedly did not even have a register to keep a log of the inmates’ diet or their movements, sources informed. How could such an ill-equipped lockup be used to house a proclaimed offender with over 15 cases to his name, including murder, for not one or two days – but almost a month?
Insiders claim that a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) with the Crime Branch had flagged this issue to Crime Branch Superintendent of Police (SP) Rahul Gupta, who is also the PRO of Goa Police, but the remedial measures were not taken. The Crime Branch has been using the Panjim Police station lockup for this reason. However, it is not clear why Siddiqui was not kept there. Repeated calls to Gupta from O Heraldo went unanswered.
Another grey area that stands out is the posting of an IRBn constable for guarding a lockup. According to the rulebook, being a paramilitary unit, IRBn is trained in armed operations, rather than in escorting undertrials or in guarding lockups, except for central jail and high security lockups.
Should Amit Naik, the IRBn constable who helped Siddiqui escape, have been posted at the Crime Branch lockup? A section of cops maintain that IRBn has been amalgamated into the main police force, while other senior officers say that this is not allowed. It emerges that while the role of IRBn does not allow for it, Goa Police has been using official communication to give other duty to IRBn.
Many have also wanted to know how Amit Naik got his hands on a bottle of cleaning fluid and attempted suicide. The lockup area is supposed to be completely sanitised, and there is no clarity on how the fluid not only reached the area, but also made it into the hands of Naik.
Oppn puts police, govt on the mat over jailbreak
PANJIM: As wanted land-grab accused Siddiqui alias Suleman Khan remained untraceable for the fourth day, the Goa Police top brass came under increasing pressure from the Opposition to trace the fugitive.
A joint delegation of Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Goa Congress Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) vice-president Sunil Kawthankar and AAP Goa vice-president Valmiki Naik on Monday met Director General of Police (DGP) Alok Kumar and demanded the CCTV footage that shows Siddiqui’s escape be made public to set the record straight.
Siddiqui had sent out a video message on Sunday in which he had claimed that two police teams had escorted him out of Goa, setting off a political firestorm. The police have claimed that his video is only aimed at deflecting attention from the hunt that is on to nab him.
Naik said on Monday, “Suleman Khan has named various persons in his video, so our demand is that the investigation in the case be handed over to a different team, as the present police team is under a cloud of suspicion. We have demanded that the DGP should release all the CCTV footage. We have also demanded that the family of Amit Naik and his lawyer should be allowed to meet him and know whether he really drank phenyl.”
Questioning the silence of the BJP and the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant after the viral video, Naik said, “It is very obvious that they do not have any statement to make. This only shows that what the accused has claimed in the video is probably 100 per cent correct. It is shameful.”
Kawthankar said, “Can the police officials who have been accused by Suleman Khan judge themselves? That is why we have demanded that the officials named by Khan should be replaced immediately with a new team.”
Standing firm on his stance that the videos by Siddiqui were an attempt to deflect attention, the DGP said, “Our priority right now is to re-arrest Suleiman. Once in custody, we will verify whether the allegations he made in the viral video are genuine or a ploy to distract the police. It is not necessary that whatever he has said in the video is true. We have already dismissed the constable who helped him escape and the in-charge of the constable has been suspended. We will take action if more persons are found involved.”
From mason to land-grab accused: Who is Siddiqui?
Team Herald
Panjim: Mason, land broker, a charmer with women, murder accused – the story of Suleman Khan, alias Siddiqui, and how he rose from obscurity to become reach the top of Goa Police’s most wanted list today, is almost like a film script.
Siddiqui has 15 criminal cases registered against him across the country: in Goa, Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi, but his roots can be traced back to Shimoga in Karnataka. In his early days in Goa, Siddiqui used to work as a mason, but quickly rose up the chain to become a land dealer. He moved on to luxurious cars, police sources say that there is a long list of influential names that include lawyers, notaries, and government officials who are connected to him.
In Goa there are three cases against Siddiqui for land grabbing, apart from being accused in a murder and one attempted murder case from 2014. He is said to be involved in grabbing almost 1.5 lakh sq m land, the cost of which runs into crores. Siddiqui’s name is also connected to the murder of Luiza Fernandes and the attempted murder of Tarsila Fernandes in 2014. Luiza had two properties at Anjuna, which she wanted to sell for Rs 4 crore. Siddiqui is allegedly part of the gang that hatched the plan to have her killed by hiring four goons, as Luiza did not have a legal heir. He was arrested in 2018
in this case.
In another incident, a lawyer was assaulted in Mapusa and the assailants tried to inject him with a liquid that could be a poison and Siddiqui was one of three people arrested in this case in 2016.
After he failed to join the investigation and the trial in the cases registered against him he was declared as a proclaimed offender by the court in both the cases.
Siddiqui’s personal life is no less sensational than his criminal pursuits. He is said to be a charmer with women and reportedly had several girlfriends, all of whom he used for personal gains and to save himself from the law. When he was finally arrested on November 12 this year from Karnataka, he was supposedly in a relationship with 35 women and used their identity cards and bank accounts to move his money.
Siddiqui grabbed headlines in 2023 when his name came up in high-profile land-grabbing cases. Six illegal structures, one of which belonged to Siddiqui, were demolished in October by the Mapusa Municipality.
With such a chequered background and close links with the political class, there are fears that he was allowed to escape since he might spill the beans on people in powerful positions.