Pampore Police cracks sensational murder case

Siblings behind bars over cold blooded killing of youth

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 1: Pampore Police have recovered the dead body of a mercilessly slain youth and also cracked the blind murder case within four days of occurrence. The criminals had kidnapped the youth while stealing away his valuables---including an iPad and Blackberry mobile phone set---and making an unsuccessful attempt to extort ransom of Rs one Crore from his father.

SP Awantipora, Mohammad Irshad, and SP East Srinagar, Shiekh Zulfikar, revealed at a news conference today that a youngster, namely Kaleem Qadiri of Gausiya Colony, Pampore, had disappeared in mysterious circumstances on October 28^th.  He was a 2^nd year graduation student at Amar Singh College, Srinagar.

His father, Javed Ahmed Qadiri, filed a missing report at Police Station Pampore same day at 2100 hours. They said that Police immediately launched a search to trace and recover the youth. Soon it became clear that Kaleem had driven towards Panta Chowk, Srinagar, in his Ford Figo, bearing registration No: JK01Q-1711, at 1730 hours after dropping his father at Frestbal, Pampore.

At about 2230 hours, father of the missing youth informed Police that he had received a phone call from the mobile number of his son and the caller identified himself as a kidnapper associated with the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. The caller warned Javed Qadiri against informing the Police. He demanded a ransom of Rs one Crore in exchange for Kaleem’s release.

Consequently the missing report was turned into FIR No. 169/2011 under section 365, 387 RPC. A joint team of Awantipora and Srinagar Police was constituted to investigate the case. During investigation of the case, the finger of suspicion went towards one Nazar Muhammad Dar S/o Late Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Dar, resident of nearby Rakh Shalina village, who was last spotted with the missing youth in the car. Nazar, who has been operating a mobile servicing shop at Pampore, was called to the Police Station and subjected to sustained interrogation.

During the course of questioning, Naza revealed that he was close friend of Kaleem Qadri but had not met or talked to him on phone for the last over one week. That strengthened the suspicion against him. During further questioning, Nazar disclosed that sometime back he hatched up a conspiracy with his brother, Younis Ahmed Dar, who runs a small time chemist’s shop in Shalina and a friend, Javed Ahmed Bhat of Wahabpora, Budgam, who has settled in Tengan Shalina, to kidnap Kaleem and extort a hefty ransom from his opulent father.

Acting upon the conspiracy already hatched, the missing youth was lured by Nazar to move towards Panta Chowk, Srinagar, where he promised him to sell his iPad against a considerable amount. Waiting for Kaleem at Lasjan bridge, Younis and Javed also boarded the Car and moved towards Nowgam. After driving a distance in the deserted Bypass area, they strangled Kaleem to death near Silver Star Hotel with a waist belt they had carried along. Thereafter, drove all the way to Wahabpora village in Budgam district via Hyderpora and Budgam.

Near Wahabpora, all the three accused wrapped the dead body in a bed sheet and put it in the dickey of the vehicle. They moved towards Bemina, Shalteng area to wait for total darkness. At about 2130 hours, the killers brought the body back to Sheerbagh Lasjan where it was loaded on a boat and dumped in the middle of the river Jhelum after tying some stones of 25 Kg weight to it.

The car of the deceased was taken to Jawahar Nagar and was parked on The Bandh near Foot Bridge Lal Mandi. Having parked the vehicle, the accused Nazar Muhammad Dar made a phone call to the father of the deceased telling him that the vehicle was parked near the foot bridge in Lal Mandi, Srinagar. He was warned against informing Police and asked to arrange ransom of Rs one Crore by next morning. The father in distress, however, informed Police who later recovered the car from the identified spot.

Kaleem’s iPad and Blackberry mobile phone set were also recovered from Nazar Muhammad’s house. Strenuous efforts were made to fish out the body from the river on October 31st but it could not be recovered till late evening and the search was suspended due to darkness. It was finally fished out in the morning today from the same spot where it had been dumped into Jhelum near Sempora.

Siblings Nazar and Younis have been arrested and the third accused Javaid Ahmad Bhat S/o Mohammad Ishaq Bhat R/o Wahabpora, presently Tengan Rakh Shlaina is still at large. Another suspect namely Abid Hussain Bhat son of Ghulam Muhammad Bhat resident of Tangan is also being questioned to ascertain his involvement and further details.

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