How Mumbai police scripted Shah's arrest

How Mumbai police scripted Shah's arrest
J DEY

MUMBAI, JAN. 10: The strategy adopted by Mumbai police to corner Bharat Shah would, in its plotting, rival the scripts of most Bollywood potboilers that the man himself financed.

Apparently, the police had no illusions about the fact that they were taking on an individual who wields enormous political and financial clout. If signs of a specific scrutiny of Shah's dealings had leaked out early on in the exercise, it was feared that every shred of evidence the police consider incriminating would have evaporated, or else the influence of the powers that be would be used to stonewall the investigation.

According to sources, the Mumbai police were a little worried when Bharat Shah visited New Delhi to meet top politicians for help to bail him out of the case. The diamond exporter had also reportedly visited London at the time, raising doubts in the minds of top police officials that he would do a Nadeem Saifee on them.

To avoid attention, the authorities dangled a red herring: they made it look like a routine, but wide-ranging investigation into mafia money being used to finance Bollywood films. To raise a little dust and lend credence to the theory, the police even turned the heat on financier Harish Sughand and his brother Jhamu Sughand, both of whom are known for bankrolling prestigious film projects. Mock raids were conducted on Harish Sughand's residence at Pali Hill in Bandra between January 3 and 5.

Some senior police officers also confirmed that Harish Sugand had been summoned to the crime branch for questioning in connection with financing of a recent film. For the record, Sughand has not fled the city. He is very much at home.

Also, the police played it safe by neither confirming nor denying that the raids on the Sughands had any connection with their ongoing investigations into the use of mafia money in Bollywoood, the ambiguousness of which was lost on most television channels.

The ploy worked. Bharat Shah was given the impression that Harish Sughand was now the prime suspect in the film-mafia nexus case and it was fairly safe for him to return to base in the city.

They then summoned him for what looked like routine questioning on January 8 -- Shah had already made two visits to the Crime Branch by then -- but unlike on other ocassions did not wait for him to arrive there. They actually intercepted his Maruti Esteem at a junction in South Mumbai and escorted him to the Crime Branch.

It is still not clear whether the police will summon Harish Sughand to the Crime Branch for questioning. Indications are he will not be questioned as the police do not have sufficient evidence aginst him.

Meanwhile, Bharat Shah was escorted back to the crime branch this morning. He has not been forthcoming with information during interrogations, revealed a senior officer. ``We have more evidence in Shah's case than Sessions Court Judge J W Singh, who was also booked under MCOCA,''remarked a senior police officer.