Phone records lead cops to 4

MUMBAI: Going through the phone call records of Javed Shaikh (19), arrested for allegedly raping and murdering eight-year-old Nusrat Shaikh, police got suspicious of four mobile numbers he called the maximum after Nusrat's abduction on June 6.
Based on the call record information, the special investigation squad formed under the zonal deputy commissioner of police Dilip Sawant picked up four teenagers from Kurla and Navi Mumbai since Tuesday.The four have been identified as Bilal Shah (19), Ejaz Ahmed (18), Mohammed Shaikh (19) and Wajahat Shaikh (19). Shah was picked up from his house at Qureshi Nagar on Thursday midnight, Ahmed was picked on Tuesday, while the others were picked up from the cable operator's office in Navi Mumbai Thursday evening.
Initially Sawant denied police had detained or picked anyone from Kurla as part of the investigation. When TOI pointed out that Raju Patil, the owner of Swastik Cable where Javed worked, confirmed in an interview to a TV channel that the cops had picked up his employees, Sawant said, "No one has been arrested. We have brought them to get details and information pertaining to the case."
"The four were detained after we saw the accused had made many calls to them last month. Statements of the four will be taken to know why the calls were made and the conversation they had with Javed on those instances. The statements will be cross-checked with those of Javed to get detailed information," a Nehru Nagar police officer said.
The officer said that after going through the call details they had found Javed had called Ejaz, Mohammed and Wajahat the most. "They are friends and reside in the neighbourhood at Kasaiwada in Kurla and worked together with the cable operator," the officer said.
The officer added they are trying to know what drove the accused to commit the offence. "Among several angles, we are investigating whether the accused had committed the crime after going through any information while surfing the internet or through any other source or medium," he further said.
Patil said Javed was picked from his shop at Kurla on Tuesday while cops arrested Mohammed and Wajahat from his Navi Mumbai office on Thursday. "I am cooperating in the investigations. But it is affecting my business," said Patil.