BENGALURU: Two
security guards were arrested at
Howrah railway station, Kolkata on Sunday morning for murdering Karim Khan, 72, in Gowribidanur,
Chikkaballapura district on May 3.
Nazrulla Hussain and Zakeer are in their late twenties. Police said they’re looking for the third accused, also a security guard. Hussain is a security guard at Karim’s farm house.
Police said the trio kidnapped Karim, a resident of RT Nagar, who owned 10 acres at Goddavalahalli near Gowribidanur. Karim Khan would regularly visit the farm house and stay there for a couple of days, his family told police. On May 3, he was sleeping in his room and his wife was sleeping in another room. Karim Khan, a retired BEL employee, had purchased the farm in 2014.
“Recently, Khan decided to sell the farm house. A businessman had showed interest and the price was fixed at Rs 1.5 crore. Khan insisted that Rs 75 lakh be paid in cash as an advance. Hussain heard about the deal and plotted the kidnap with two others,” police said.
“The trio kidnapped Khan in the wee hours of May 3 and locked him in a nearby motor shed. Later that day, they called his younger son Ayub Khan and demanded a ransom of Rs 75 lakh for his father’s release,” police said.
Ayub filed a police complaint on May 4 and a special team was formed to trace the victim. “Meanwhile, Khan died of suffocation in the shed. The trio buried the body in a pit in the same shed and fled. On reaching Gowribidanur, they boarded the Howrah Express on May 4 evening,” police said. The mobile tower location of their cellphones showed they were travelling on the train.
Gowribidanur railway station staff told police the suspects had purchased tickets to Kolkata and would reach Howrah station by Sunday morning. “We took a flight to Kolkata on Saturday night and caught two of the accused when they walked out of the station on Sunday morning,” police said.
