Cops crack murder mystery after 18 years, 3 held

HYDERABAD: On June 4, 2001 at Sadamal Grape Garden in Shastripuram, an unidentified man was found murdered. As the police failed to get leads, they declared the case as ‘undetected’. However, 18 years later, on Sunday, police announced that four persons, including the victim’s now 70-year-old mother, have been arrested in the case, while producing three of the arrested accused before the media. The victim’s mother, Masooda Bee, is absconding.

Hyderabad police said that Mohammed Khaja (30), a butcher, was murdered by four persons- victim’s friend Syed Hasham, his brothers-in-law Mohammed Rasheed and Basheer Ahmed Qureshi and the victim’s mother Masooda Bee.

Sources said that an information shared by Qureshi in an inebriated state helped the police crack the case. During a vehicle check in view of the polls, police came across Qureshi, who was carrying a butcher’s knife and was reportedly drunk. When Task Force sleuths questioned Qureshi about the knife, he said that he was a butcher, but on further questioning, revealed that he had participated in the murder of his brother-law Khaja a long time ago.

During investigation, police discovered that Khaja, who was one of the eight children of Masooda, was financially dependent on her and was addicted to alcohol and gambling. The victim used to call his friends to his house and indulge in gambling, due to which his family members shifted to Aljubail Colony from Hashamabad in Chandrayangutta as they were embarrassed by his behaviour. The victim continued to stay at Hashamabad but would occasionally visit the house in Aljubail and demand money from his family members and physically assault them.

Vexed over the issue, Masooda decided to eliminate Khaja with the help of her sons-in-law, who in turn roped in Hasham for the murder.

On the day of the murder, the three accused— Hasham, Rasheed and Basheer invited Khaja over for drinks. The accused, along with the victim, visited a toddy shop at Bandlaguda in Hasham’s autorickshaw.

After consuming toddy, the four persons started their journey towards Shastripuram, which was then an isolated and underdeveloped area. They travelled till sunset and got down from the autorickshaw near Sadamal Grape Garden on the pretext of attending to nature’s call and went into the nearby bushes adjoining a road. “As per their plan, the three accused bludgeoned Khaja to death by hitting him on the head with a boulder. They later went to Masooda Bee and informed her about Khaja’s death, after which she gave them money to pay Hasham as promised. She told her relatives that Khaja has severed all ties with them and has gone somewhere,” said Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar during the press conference.