Sana Iqbal's accident 'pre-planned murder by her husband', says mother of cross-country biker

HYDERABAD: The mother of well-known cross-country biker Sana Iqbal, who died in a car crash here on Tuesday, has alleged that it was a "pre-planned" and "cold-blooded murder" by the latter's husband and not an accident.

As dozens of mourners, including bikers, gathered at her house for the funeral procession on Wednesday, her mother Shaheen Khan told IANS that she had lodged a complaint with the police that it was "murder" by Sana's estranged husband Abdul Nadeem.

Several bikers from 'Wanderers', of which Sana was a member, led the funeral procession on their motorcycles from her house in Al-Hasnath Colony in Toli Chowki to the burial ground in Bazar Ghat area. Large number of friends and fans turned up to pay their last respects.

The 30-year-old, who did countrywide solo ride to create awareness about suicides and depression, died when the car which her husband was driving rammed into an electric pole on a road divider in Narsangi on the city outskirts early on Tuesday.

Nadeem, a techie, escaped with injuries while Sana died on the spot as the left side of the vehicle bore the brunt of the impact.

Shaheen Khan, who is head of the law department at Crescent University in Chennai, said she would fight for justice as police was merely treating it as an accident. "The whole thing was pre-planned and was made to look like an accident," said Shaheen, who has given a written complaint to Narsangi police station.

Sana's mother suspects that her husband hit her with something heavy before ramming the car.

Shaheen, who practised law in Hyderabad before becoming a professor, said Nadeem and his mother had been harassing Sana for money since the marriage three years ago. "She lived with her husband only for three to four months as they were harassing her. We had also lodged complaints with the police but they did nothing beyond counselling," she said.

"He wanted her to transfer her salary to his bank account. He was also forcing her to allow him to use her credit cards for drawing Rs 5 lakh," she said and pointed out that nobody from Nadeem's family attended the last rites.

Shaheen alleged that Nadeem used to visit the house and force Sana to accompany him by creating a scene. When she returned from duty at 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nadeem who was waiting near the house asked her to join him for a drive.

Sana initially refused but when he allegedly threatened to create a scene, she accompanied him, leaving their son with her sister. "He might have made an assessment of Narsangi area to execute his plan as nobody would be there and it will be dark," she said.

The eldest of Shaheen's four daughter, Sana was working as a manager with Hinduja Global Services. She did MA in Philosophy and earlier worked with Google and Genpact.

She had embarked on a solo 38,000-km journey across India in 2015 on her Royal Enfield Bullet Electra to create awareness against suicide and depression.

As part of her anti-suicide mission, she had delivered talk at seminars in different parts of the country.