Srinagar: For Khans, January 2025 would have been a time to welcome the arrival of a new family member. But it turned out to be a period of mourning for the remote Hapatnar village in south Kashmir after J&K Police unveiled the gruesome murder of a 30-year-old woman, who was six months pregnant at the time of her death on October 4.
ETV Bharat learnt from senior police officials privy to the investigation that the deceased Shabnum Akhter was allegedly strangled to death by her husband Imran Khan by tying a rope around her neck inside their home in the idyllic village 81 kilometres away from Srinagar.
Mother of a 4-year-old daughter and the second wife of a daily wage labourer, Khan suspected Shabnam of having an extramarital affair with a man hailing from the same village.
“The couple had a strained relationship for many years. They had even tried mediation last year but it could do little to iron out the differences. Our investigation could not substantiate the allegations of her husband and instead, we found him to be involved in an extramarital affair,” said Station House Officer Aishmuqam Police Station Syed Showket Bukhari, who utilised in this case his previous investigative skills in cracking a similar blind murder case of Srinagar’s Nowgam in 2018.
After committing the murder, Khan filed the complaint at the concerned Police Station two days later claiming her wife was missing and had not returned home since visiting Kashmir’s revered Ziyarat (shrine) adjacent to their village in Aishmuqam on Srinagar-Pahalgam road on October 4.
“But the technical evidence showed the phone was operating in Pahalgam area during daytime and Hapatnar village at night on October 4. Also, she was expecting a mother and the allegation of running away was out of the question. It raised our suspicion and we followed it with further technical investigation and questioning of some family members,” he added.
The breakthrough, according to Bukhari, came in the first week of January when the husband confessed to the crime along with his mother Noor Hassan and his first wife (name withheld) who were present at the spot of the crime attested to it, said another investigating officer.
“The murder occurred in the presence of Khan’s first wife who was living separately on the ground floor while the deceased was on the first floor of the house. But the first wife remained tightlipped out of fear. Now, she is cooperating in the case,” he said.
The painstaking and intensive investigations spanning over three months threw horrific details ranging from burning the body to grinding the bones with stones to wipe out evidence. The body, according to the police officer, was dumped inside the home but was buried in the lawn under the cover of night on October 5-6 2024.
But the foul smell emanating from the lawn prompted them (Khan and his mother) to exhume the body after over three weeks and put it in a freshly dug-out pit inside the cowshed and burn it, he added.
"The accused mother-in-law ground the skull and bones with stones, turned them into powder and discarded it in the vegetable garden to destroy the evidence,” said Bukhari, whose team is readying a watertight case against both the accused for a maximum sentence.
"We have secured some crucial evidence including pieces of broken bones, hair of the deceased, some charcoal pieces, mobile phone of the deceased and one tin sheet used to protect the cowshed from catching fire."
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