pune mukesh alias monty who was arrested along with his father shivalal alias shivaji babulal rao for gunning down a mess operator at wadgaonsheri on wednesday has told interrogators that the latter was in constant touch with a woman in delhi a few days before the murder and she may have given the contract to execute the crimeekta bhati 38 along with husband brijesh 42 was running a messcumtiffin service from their apartment dhanadeep at indramani housing society and was shot by two men in the evening the police traced the duo to the pune railway station and nabbed shivalal following a dramatic shooting and chase and arrested mukesh from the daund stationshivalal is proving a hard nut to crack he has so far sought to contradict all information gathered against him mukesh is fairly talking with us during the interrogation a crime branch officer associated with the investigation said mukesh has not yet revealed the delhi womans name he has however said that the murder plot was hatched in delhi the officer told toione of the motives being probed is the possible link of the murder to a rape complaint lodged by a woman in delhi in may last year against brijesh he ran a real estate and used vehicles business in delhi and was in a relationship with the woman a corporate executive for three years before he shifted with his family to pune two years ago the woman had given him money for businessin februarymarch last year the woman traced brijesh to pune and visited the city to discuss their relationship and repayment of money she had given to him their discussion remained inconclusive and she returned to delhi where she filed the rape complaint against brijesh in may last year the delhi police arrested brijesh and he was lodged in tihar jail till july last year when he secured bail from a delhi court the police have not yet established whether shivalal and mukesh were hired on contract for killing brijesh and why they fired at ektadeputy commissioner of police crime shirish sardeshpande told toi our investigation is on track and we have collected a lot of information a more clear picture will emerge once we get all the information about the rape case in delhi and the antecedents of shivalal and mukesh from the delhi police there are some missing links because mukesh is claiming certain things and shivalal is contradicting those during their interrogation by separate crime branch unitsa crime branch official said mukesh has so far narrated the chain of events from the stage when they had boarded a train from delhi to pune to conducting a recce of the victims apartment and the surrounding areas theft of a motorcycle that was used in the crime and what the fatherson duo did after the murder