Nishar was held in Maharashtra for burglaries

Vadodara: In a startling revelation, police have found that the 62-year-old victim of custodial death, Sheikh Babu Nishar, had cases of thefts and burglaries lodged against him in Maharashtra.
While searching for him after a missing persons complaint was lodged on January 31, the city police reached Karad in Maharashtra’s Satara district on June 27 and learnt that he was arrested there for burglaries.“We found out that four offences of burglaries were registered against him at Karad police station,” said assistant commissioner of police SG Patil.
The offences were registered in 2017 and 2018 as Nishar had allegedly stolen ornaments worth Rs 6.8 lakh from four different houses, Karad police station inspector BR Patil told TOI over phone.
During investigation, police learnt that a jeweller in Karad to whom Nishar had allegedly sold the stolen ornaments had also died in the custody of Karad police on June 18 in 2016. An inspector and three other policemen of Karad police station are in jail for 30 months in connection with that incident.
On June 17, the Karad police had detained jeweller Raosaheb Jadhav (42) of Nimbore village in Solapur district over suspicion of his involvement in a theft. He died in police custody the following day.
Another offence was also registered against him at Hinjewadi police station in Pimpri-Chinchwad district as he was found moving around suspiciously.
The city police had also checked with jail officials in Satara if Nishar was lodged there.
Police are now suspecting that although he used to sell bedsheets while roaming around on bicycle in Vadodara, he used to conduct a recce of closed houses in the city during afternoon hours. “Nishar used to come daily to Vadodara from Ahmedabad either by train or bus and roam around on his bicycle which he used to park at railway station,” an official said.
“However, no matter how much dreaded or history-sheeter a person is, an accused can never be harmed or insulted while in police custody,” said deputy commissioner of police, Deepak Meghani.