Nimbalkar case: CBI to probe senior Mumbai cop

CBI will examine "connections" between a senior Mumbai Police official and an accused in the sensational 2006 murder of Congress leader P Nimbalkar after a confessional statement by the offender that he had met the officer along with an accomplice.

Parasmal Jain, alleged to have provided logistics for executing the murder of Nimbalkar including arranging for shooters, said in his confessional statement that he along with Satish Mandade had met the Mumbai's senior police official, a 1981-batch IPS officer from the state.

In his confessional statement before a magistrate, Jain claimed that "...after that I along with Mandade reached the office of the senior police official.

"After 10 minutes, he called us to his office. He was handed over the scotch bottle and the official directed me to sit outside. For another 20 minutes, Mandade and the senior police official were closeted in one room. And after that we left," Jain said in the statement.

The murder of Nimabalkar turned sensational after NCP MP Padamsinh Patil was arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy due to political rivalry. The Parliamentarian has since been suspended by NCP and also chargesheeted by the CBI.

In the wake of the sensational disclosure made by Jain, CBI sources said the relations between Mandade and the senior Mumbai police official will be verified.  In his confessional statement, Jain claimed he had also visited the house of Patil along with Mandade.

"When our car reached Patil's house, I was made to sit in one room while Mandade left to talk to Doctor saheb (Patil)," he said, adding "what transpired between Mandade and Patil, I am not aware."

CBI has already filed a chargesheet on August 20 in which Patil had been allegedly accused of hatching the conspiracy due to political rivalry. Nimabalkar and his driver were shot dead on June 3, 2006, at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai.

The chargesheet includes statements of 181 witnesses and over 200 documents as evidence against Patil and six other arrested persons.

It also includes the statement of accused Parasmal Jain recorded by a Magistrate under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in which he has revealed his role and that of the other accused in the offence. The six arrested accused are Mandade, Shukla, Parasmal Jain, Dinesh Tiwari, Pintu Singh and Kailash Yadav.