Pune: A missing personThe complaint was filed four days after a woman was beheaded. torso was recovered from the riverbed of Mula-Mutha in Kharadi and helped the city solve the murder case within 24 hours based on the matching Moles.
The city police identified the deceased as Sakina Abdul Khan (48). They claimed that her brother Ashfaque Abdul Khan (51) and his wife Hamida (45) strangled the unmarried woman to death on the night of August 23 over the ownership of a 10-by-12-foot room in Narveer Tanaji Wadi in Shivajinagar, where the three lived. The couple's two children live in a boarding school.
Police said the couple dismembered Sakina's body into different parts using a cleaver in the washroom over the next two days. They then packed her body parts in garbage bags and threw them into the river from the Sangamwadi bridge near the regional transport office on the evening of August 25.
The Chandannagar Police had registered a case of murder after the torso was found in the riverbed near a construction site in Kharadi on the morning of August 26. Police are still searching for the victim's head and upper and lower limbs. The cleaver used to dismember Sakina's body has not been found yet.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingale said, “The description of the incident given by the arrested couple matched details like birthmarks mentioned in a missing person complaint filed on August 30 in connection with Sakina (by her niece). We have photographs of the torso. Samples taken from the torso and the blood sample of Ashfaque will be sent to forensic experts who will do DNA fingerprinting to establish the identity of the victim beyond doubt. A forensic examination of the room where the murder was committed is underway. At the moment, we can say that the torso is that of Sakina.”
Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajan Kumar Sharma said, “Ashfaque works as an auto mechanic in an auto workshop. His sister Sakina was a domestic help. The murder came to light when her niece from Kondhwa came to her room to enquire about Sakina's whereabouts after learning that she had not been seen for a few days.”
He said, “The couple told their niece that Sakina had gone missing and they tried in vain to find her. The niece sensed something was wrong when she noticed that Sakina's shoes were at home. Sakina would never leave her house without them due to her physical disability. People in the area also had their doubts about Sakina going anywhere without speaking to anyone from her family or to them. The niece then filed a missing person complaint with Shivajinagar police on the evening of August 30.”
By this time, the Chandannagar police had already alerted other police units to enquire about the missing persons reports registered with them. The Shivajinagar police informed their counterparts in Chandannagar about the matter and Ashfaque and his wife were taken into custody for questioning on August 31.
Sharma said: “Hamida was the first to break down during intensive interrogation and spill the beans. She admitted that they killed Sakina. She told us that her mother-in-law had gifted Sakina the house and some jewels.”
DCP Pingale said, “Ashfaque and Hamida told us during their questioning that on the night of August 23, they had a heated exchange with Sakina over possessions and jewellery, after which they strangled her with a rope. Later, they dismembered her body and packed them in garbage bags. We are questioning them as to how they brought these bags to the bridge – on foot or in a vehicle. Prima facie, we suspect that Khan went to the bridge several times to throw the body parts in the river. When the murder was committed, it was raining heavily for three days. Her neighbours did not hear any noise from their house. We are yet to find the chipper used to dismember the body.”
The Chandannagar police investigated over 200 missing persons reports and checked CCTV footage from different parts of the city to ascertain the identity of the deceased woman. The teams conducted search operations from Khadakwasla to Kharadi and along the Mula and Pavana rivers in Pimpri Chinchwad.
