HYDERABAD: It was a dairy farm owner Tanveer Pasha, who was allegedly behind throwing filth on Siasat editor Zahed Ali Khan, police said on Wednesday.

Pasha hatched a plot to humiliate Mr. Khan and hired five youngsters to execute it, Asifnagar ACP B. Mahender Reddy told The Hindu .

Three of the accused youths - Shaoeb, Azeem and Farazuddin - were arrested within hours of the incident at Mehdipatnam on Tuesday night. Pasha and his two accomplices, Akhil and Shouri, are still at large. All of them are residents of Zebabagh.

The first clue that triggered protest demonstrations by various political parties came when police verified the background of the arrested trio. While Shaoeb and Azeem claimed they were 10th standard students, investigation revealed they were not students but doing odd jobs.

During interrogation, they admitted to Pasha offering them money if they executed his plan. "It seems Pasha's idea was to humiliate Mr. Khan but not to attack him," the police said. On Tuesday, the youths first went to the editor's office area but postponed their plan on learning that he was not present there.

Police are yet to find out how the dairy farm owner came to know about the editor's movements. They suspect that he rang up the hired youths that Mr. Khan would pass by Mehdipatnam around 8 p.m.

Analysis of mobile phone call data confirmed that Pasha rang them up.

They selected the road near the St. Ann's College to intercept the ongoing road digging work, which would force the driver to slow down the vehicle. Shaoeb and Azeem started off on a motorcycle, suddenly applied brakes on coming close to the car, acted as if they fell down and picked up a quarrel with the driver.

Meanwhile, Akhil and Shourie came on a three-wheeler.

When Mr. Khan rolled down the window, Akhil hurled a bucket of filth on him and fled the spot with his accomplice.

Police said they were trying to ascertain the motive behind the incident.

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