Ex-wife of matka king confesses killing

MUMBAI: Jaya Chedda, ex-wife of top matka man Suresh Bhagat, has confessed to orchestrating the killing of her ex-husband. According to police sources, Jaya revealed that the blueprint to the murder was inked a good deal in advance.
During interrogation she let slip that the plan to do her Bhagat in materialised after the original plan to frame him flopped.She admitted to having connived, over the last three years, with her paramour Suhas Roge and his associate Kiran Poojari, to try and frame Bhagat in criminal cases. But the charges never stuck. "She claimed that some time ago Roge paid an activist to inflict injuries on himself and blame Bhagat for the assault. Bhagat was arrested in that case," sources revealed.
There are also rumours that the Navi Mumbai NDPS case that Bhagat had to attend at the Alibaug court was a cooked one.
When all their gambits failed, Kiran Poojari, one of the key accused surfaced with the idea that the only way to get rid of Bhagat was to eliminate him. After divorcing her husband, Jaya kept trying to gain control of the matka business, but Bhagat was the thorn in her side.
"The first meeting to decide what was to be done with Bhagat was held in Jaya's parents' house at Vishal Co-operative Housing Society in Ghatkopar. This was attended by Roge and Kiran Poojari. It was here that Poojari suggested having a truck ram into Bhagat's jeep at Karlikhind ghat on Alibaug road. This would not have raised any suspicion," said joint commissioner of police (crime), Rakesh Maria.
On May 15, as per plan, the accused truck driver, Praveen Shetty, waited just a kilometre away from Karlikhind ghat for a signal from Roge, who was following Bhagat's Scorpio jeep in his friend's Maruti Zen. But Bhagat escaped because Shetty failed to reach the ghat on time, Maria said.
The most recent turn of events occurred on Monday, when the crime branch recovered Rs four lakh from Kiran Poojari's house in Mulund. Poojari is close to a certain MLA and state minister.
Senior inspector Ramesh Mahale said that Poojari had received Rs five lakh as his legal fees, and it was Poojari who assured the other accused that he would make sure the case preceded smoothly.
(ahmed.ali@timesgroup.com)