Family claims masterminds being protected in murder case

Lalwani, father of three, was killed on March 18 at a barber's shop in Saleh Patt, Sukkur

HYDERABAD:

As the Sukkur Police claim of having making headway in the murder case of journalist Ajay Kumar Lalwani and arresting his killers, Lalwani's family maintains that masterminds behind the murder are being protected because of their political influence.

The Sukkur police arrested a suspect, Akbar Mangrio, from Lahore on Saturday and the suspect allegedly revealed the murder plot. A video recording of Mangrio, with his eyes blindfolded, has also been leaked by the police.

Lalwani, a father of three children, was killed on March 18 at a barber's shop in Saleh Patt, Sukkur. He worked for an Urdu daily and a news channel, and was reportedly vocal against local mafias.

In a statement on Monday, the Sukkur Police claimed that three more suspects, identified as Raza Shah, Jameel Shah and Jan Muhammad Mirani, had been arrested. The police said quoting the suspects that Raza Shah had an old grudge against Lalwani for two reasons. The slain journalist, according to Raza Shah, was behind his implication in the 2013 Hindu temple theft case. Shah and Lalwani allegedly also engaged in some financial dealings with one another.

However, Lalwani's family has rubbished these assertions of the suspects.

"The temple theft is an eight-year-old incident and Ajay had nothing to do with the registration of the FIR then," said Advocate Heeranand Lalwani, his uncle. He also refuted that the slain journalist had any financial dealings with Shah.

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"The fact is that Saleh Patt town committee chairperson Inayat Shah and vice-chairperson Ahsan Shah have been threatening our family, particularly Ajay, for a long time and they even got many fake FIRs registered against us," said Ekant Lalwani, the slain journalist's brother. He said both Raza Shah and Jameel Shah were henchmen of the chairperson and vice-chairperson.

"Persons presented as the masterminds are actually paid killers," he said.

Both Heeranand and Ekant blamed the police for trying to protect the real masterminds.

The police geared into action after the media upped the ante of their protests, holding sit-in demonstrations and staging protest rallies in several cities.

Meanwhile, Mangrio, in his statement to the police, which has also been shared through the recorded video, said he was contacted by Jameel more than two weeks before the murder. "Jameel Shah phoned me and said come there is a work for you," said Mangrio. "Jameel took me to Raza who told me that he wanted me to eliminate Ajay."

"I refused to do this because they didn't tell me the reason for killing him. But I suggested some other persons who would do the job," he said, adding that he later arranged a meeting of Jan Muhammad Mirani and Ghulam Mustafa with Raza and Jameel. "They did Ajay's recce for 15 days. [On March 18], they sat near a hair salon for two hours until Ajay came. I was also standing there at some distance to identify Ajay," said Mangrio.

According to him, after the journalist entered the salon, Mustafa parked his car outside the shop and Mirani entered the salon and opened fire on Ajay, who sustained three gunshot wounds. Mangrio said he and the two killers were offered a paltry sum of Rs150,000 and paid only Rs100,000. The three divided the amount in as many equal shares of Rs33,000, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2021.