A News9 Plus investigation has tracked the murderer of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre nearly 40 years after his brutal killing in Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Ravindra Mhatre was an Assistant Commissioner in India’s Consulate at Birmingham. On February 3, 1984, four terrorists abducted him from outside his office. The next morning, an unknown group called Kashmir Liberation Army (KLA), claimed responsibility for the abduction.

The abductors demanded the release of terrorist Maqbool Butt from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail and nine others, along with 1 million pounds as ransom. On the evening of February 5, a motorist found Mhatre’s body with two gunshot wounds on his head. Fearing that their plan could fail at any moment, the abductors had assassinated Mhatre in cold blood.

“Both the UK and India failed to bring the killer of Ravindra Mhatre to justice. That is the reason we had to step in and do their job, even if four decades later,” said the channel’s journalist-investigator Aditya Raj Kaul in a statement issued by TV9 network yesterday.

News9Plus investigation traced the killer of Ravindra Mhatre, identified as Malik Massarat in Kotli of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

“Our investigation hit a lot of roadblocks but finally we were able to corroborate from multiple sources the location and present state of the terrorist Malik Massarat who lives a shadowy life in Kotli of PoK for the last 40 years. He fears even today that he would be arrested or killed for the killing he committed in 1984.

“Now that the UK and Indian Governments have the names, witnesses, evidence and location, the ball is in their court to act or remain a mute spectator as before”, added Kaul who interviewed two witnesses.

“I can confirm that the order to kill Ravindra Mhatre was given by Amanullah Khan. He was the Chairman of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Khan felt that police would be able to arrest the kidnappers and that would disgrace the JKLF. Hence, a new identity of KLF was given to the kidnappers”, said Shabir Chaudhary, former Secretary General of the JKLF in an interview from the UK.

“Masarat Iqbal was involved in this abduction. He was Amnullah Khan’s tenant. He called Amanullah Khan and told him that Police could be reaching them soon, what should we do? Amanullah Khan told him in front of me, ‘Shoot him Dead and dispose off the body’. I opposed Amanullah and told him not to kill this innocent man”, revealed Hashim Qureshi, a close associate of Amanullah Khan and India’s first hijacker of the Ganga Aircraft in 1971.

For the last few months, Indian diplomats in the United States and Canada have been receiving death threats from designated Khalistani terrorists. Death threats to our envoys cannot be taken lightly. The ongoing investigation of News9Plus began tracking the trail of such intimidations. It led to the sensational and yet unsolved murder of an Indian diplomat in the United Kingdom 40 years ago.

  News9 Plus investigation, according to a press release, spread across months, also revealed a failed attempt to assassinate a former Indian Prime Minister in the UK and a conspiracy to kill a former Indian ambassador to France in 1985-86.