MUMBAI, August 13: Police achieved a breakthrough in the music baron and Super Cassettes Industries proprietor Gulshan Kumar's murder case today when they arrested an Abu Salem gang member Nizamuddin early in the morning at Trombay. Nizamuddin, Police Commissioner Subhash Malhotra said, is one of the prime accused in the killing. This, he said, has been confirmed with the help of sketches and photographs identified by witnesses.

Four men, believed to be members of the Abu Salem gang, had pumped 17 bullets into Gulshan Kumar's body as he emerged out of a temple at Andheri on Tuesday morning. He died on the spot. Home minister Gopinath Munde, meanwhile, is meeting top film personalities tomorrow to take stock of the situation.

Malhotra said crime branch sleuths arrested Nizamuddin, believed to be Abu Salem's contract killer, from a hideout at Trombay. He was active in the Trombay-Antop Hill areas in central Mumbai, Malhotra added.

Another senior police officer, however, said that all the four suspects have been identified. However, despite intensive combing operations undertaken by the police, some of the shooters have fled the city. Three separate police parties have been sent out to arrest them, the officer added.

Police records say Nizamuddin, a close associate of Abu Salem's former lieutenant Salim Haddi, is wanted in connection with two murders in the city, apart from the Gulshan Kumar killing. He was a member of the squad that killed city builder, Omprakash Kukreja, in September 1995. Kukreja was bumped off for his links with Chhota Rajan, arch rival of Dubai-based Dawood Ibrahim. He was also accused of firing at a television actor Feroz Khan, who played Arjun's role in TV serial Mahabharat the same year.

Five other members of the Abu Salem gang have also been detained for interrogation. They were arrested during the nakabandi last night.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.