Why did Mateen confess?

That is now a question cops are probing, while Home Minister backpedals on his 'breakthrough' promise to say cops are clueless

After the Home Minister's promise of a "breakthrough" and the Mumbai Police's refrain of being "on the right track" proved to be nothing more than vacuous words yesterday, what with the accused's confession to killing MiD DAY scribe J Dey last Saturday turning out to be a sham, the investigation is back to square one.



Cops had to start from scratch yesterday after it was revealed that arrested accused Mateen Sheikh alias Iqbal Hatela, who had confessed to gunning Dey down last Saturday, was merely bluffing. Their assembled body of clues turned out to be a mirage after Mateen's interrogation.

Although cops were unconvinced of his admission from the get go (see box), they became certain yesterday that it was bogus. They also interrogated the other two named by Mateen, Anwar Sheikh and Raja D Salvi, and found that the trio had no bearing to the crime in question.

"It doesn't seem as if the three people detained and questioned earlier are the culprits, and police have started the investigation all over again," a Crime Branch official said.

He added, "Anwar and Mateen, believed to be associated with gangster Chhota Shakeel, had been detained and questioned for two days. But they were let off on Wednesday."

Now cops are out to find why Mateen admitted to a crime he did not commit. Was it a smokescreen to deflect attention from the real culprits, or something more subtle and involuted?

'Have faith'
All the developments have unglued Home Minister RR Patil from his proclamation that the investigation was progressing in the right direction.

"We have full faith in the ability of the Mumbai police. They will surely catch the accused. They should be given sufficient time. We don't want to do anything that will distract or divert their focus," he said.

However, Patil's optimism belies his next utterance. "As of now, the police are clueless," the Home Minister said.u00a0

He further justified the dead end, suggesting that the criminals haven't been tracked down because they are too clever for the cops. "The criminals are very smart. They have not left any clues behind. That is why the investigation is getting so difficult," he said, responding to reporters' queries.

'Not much to say'
Meanwhile, the police are trying to ascertain why Mateen claimed to have gunned Dey down. They want to know why he gave false statements, speculating if his caper was an effort to mislead the investigations, sources said.

"We do not have much to say as far as the investigation is concerned," Additional Police Commissioner (Crime) Deven Bharti told reporters.

Since day one, police have been working on a number of theories that have pointed suspicion at the oil mafia, the D Gang, the sandalwood bootleggers and other shady elements. But concrete evidence eludes them.u00a0

Wrong guy
As MiD DAY reported yesterday, ('Mateen confesses, cops not convinced'), Mateen had claimed that he killed Dey at the behest of one Anwar Sheikh.

Mateen had also alleged that one Raja D Salvi, with a criminal background, was with him while executing the crime.

Mateen stated that Raja, who is from Pune, and he were on the two bikes along with two others, whom he did not know, while Anwar was in a Maruti Zen car parked opposite the crime spot at the time of the shootout. But Mateen's claims did not match with the facts after the verification.