Car thieves in Mumbai, murderers in Allahabad

The Malad police had thought they had picked up two greenhorn, harmless car thieves earlier this month. Imagine their surprise when their peers from Allahabad-based Mauaima police station told them that the two youths arrested were wanted in a brutal murder case in Uttar Pradesh.

Zeeshan Ali Ayub Khan (veiled) and Ali Ahmed split the murder booty with two others

Ali Ahmed alias Mistar Mansuri (29) and Zeeshan Ali Ayub Khan (19), residents of Sorao taluka in Allahabad, were picked up by the police on March 3 near Chincholi Bunder in Malad (west) for possessing a stolen SUV.

The two men had stolen the SUV - a Mahindra Xylo - parked near SNDT College in Malad on February 11 and had driven it to Allahabad, hoping to sell it there. Having failed to get a buyer, the two were planning on returning to Mumbai when they bumped into Nilesh Pandey (19) and Dipesh Patel (19), also from Sorao. The four then hatched a plan to murder a liquor shop owner in their taluka, Parmanand Shukla (22).

On February 27, they allegedly murdered Shukla and fled with Rs 1 lakh. After splitting the booty with Pandey and Patel, Ahmed and Khan drove back to Mumbai in the stolen Xylo.

Their luck ran out when the Malad police arrested them for car theft based on CCTV camera footage collected from the crime spot near SNDT College. While Khan was sent to police custody, Ahmed was kept in judicial custody.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad police's investigation into the murder led them to Mumbai. After the two youths were questioned in the murder case, the police found their bloodstained clothes from the day of the crime, the murder weapon, mobile phones and cash stashed away in a spot in Aarey Colony.

The Allahabad police have obtained their transit remand from the Borivali court to take them to Uttar Pradesh for further investigation.