Surat: A history-sheeter’s confidence that he had successfully outsmarted police in a murder case backfired when he agreed to take a lie-detector test, leading investigators to use it along with other evidence to arrest him as the alleged mastermind.Mohammad Hasim Siddique, a 44-year-old builder and history-sheeter, was arrested by Limbayat police for the murder 26-year-old Ashif Khan Pathan three months ago. Police had earlier arrested four persons in the case but found gaps in the sequence of events that pointed towards Siddique’s alleged involvement.Limbayat police inspector D D Chauhan, who led the investigation, said Pathan was murdered on May 13. Police arrested three alleged assailants — Kalimuddin Siddique, Mohammad Dilsad Salmani and Mohammad Sazhad Siddique — on May 15. They had stabbed Pathan to death. Based on their questioning, police arrested a fourth accused, Soyeb Khatik, on May 23 for allegedly providing Pathan’s location to the other three.“We found no active links between Khatik and the other three accused in the days preceding the murder. This raised our suspicion about Hasim Siddique,” Chauhan told TOI.Siddique allegedly had an old rivalry with Pathan and his brother, Yusuf, who is currently in jail. Police said the two groups operated as rival gangs.After Pathan’s murder, his family members had also alleged Siddique’s involvement, but investigators were looking for concrete evidence linking him to the crime.According to police, Siddique had taken precautions to ensure that his links with the three assailants could not be established. He and the other accused used different mobile phones and dummy numbers to communicate.Police also found that Siddique had allegedly been paying Rs 30,000 a month to the families of the accused since the murder.“We first conducted an SDS (suspect detection system) test on the four accused at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). FSL officials advised us to conduct a polygraph test on Hasim Siddique if we wanted to ascertain if he was the mastermind,” Chauhan said. The polygraph test was conducted between July 13 and July 18.As a polygraph test requires court permission, police approached the court and got approval. According to police, Siddique agreed to undergo the test, apparently confident that investigators would not be able to establish his involvement.However, the test became an important part of the investigation.“After the test, we combined its findings with scientific, circumstantial and technical evidence and found Hasim Siddique to be the prime accused,” Chauhan said.Siddique has at least 20 cases registered against him for armed robbery, attempted murder, criminal intimidation, offences under the Arms Act and assault, police said.
