Keenan-reuben case key witness killed over ‘affair’

MUMBAI: Nilesh Shukla, 38, the politician who has been arrested for the murder of Avinash Bali, a police informer and prime witness in the Keenan-reuben murder case, confessed that he killed Bali after he suspected him of having an affair with his wife. According to police sources, these doubts were baseless as the two had hardly met each other.

Police said that the accused had installed CCTV cameras in his house to keep a check on his wife’s movements and see if she was meeting Bali.

Although Shukla never found anything incriminating, he continued to doubt the man. The two had been friends for around a decade after Shukla was released from prison in 2008 after being booked for a drug-related crime.

Police are investigating whether the reason given by Shukla to murder Bali was the main motive behind the murder or the accused is trying to mislead them. Sources said that there is a possibility that the two had a fallout over a monetary issue.

Shukla had called Bali to his office and the two got into a heated argument. Police also found alcohol bottles at the crime scene.

Bali allegedly commented on Shukla being impotent and this may have been the ‘trigger’ after which Shukla attacked him with a hammer to his face and genitals.

Shukla’s aides later helped him destroy the evidence and he and his driver escaped to Nainital. They were later arrested in Lucknow.