Two months after a suspected murder was reported in Hyderabad, the police have arrested three men for their alleged involvement in the case. On August 22, an unidentified dead body was found in LB Nagar, near a timber depot close to Sagar X Road in the city. According to LB Nagar police, their investigation revealed that the deceased, Mohd Abdul Muqeem, was an auto driver who was murdered by his friend, Isaq (22), for sexually harassing the latter's wife.
Muqeem was a 20-year-old resident of Zhirra Tappa Chabutra in Hyderabad. According to police, Muqeem would often park his auto at the Mehdipatnam auto stand, where he met and made friends with the prime accused, Isaq. He started visiting Isaq’s house often and would inappropriately look at his wife, which upset Isaq, a press statement from Rachakonda police said.
Muqeem once visited Isaq’s house when he was away, and held his wife’s hand and sexually assaulted her, the police said. On finding out about the harassment, Isaq and his friend Irfan (22) allegedly planned to kill Muqeem, and even bought two knives worth Rs 1,500 for the crime.
On the evening of August 21, Isaq and Irfan found Muqeem with an auto which was later found to have been stolen from Sangareddy, police said. The two accused men offered alcohol to Muqeem, and Isaq went home to bring money (and the knives) to a wine shop in Mallepally, the police statement said.
From the wine shop, the three men went to Gudimalkapur, where they sat on a footpath by the vegetable market yard and drank alcohol till midnight. According to the police, once Muqeem was intoxicated, Isaq pushed him onto the footpath, and as Irfan held his hands down, Isaq stabbed him in the neck and other parts of his body. Irfan also later stabbed him, police said.
When Muqeem died, they went to the third accused, 19-year-old Riyaz Khan, for advice to cover up the murder. The three men allegedly took Muqeem’s body in the stolen auto to the timber depot, after which Irfan and Isaq brought petrol in a bottle from a petrol pump in Nampally and set the body on fire to destroy evidence and to make the body unidentifiable.
All three accused are residents of the same locality, near Asif Nagar, and are auto drivers by occupation. LB Nagar police arrested the accused on Wednesday evening, and seized the two knives and auto allegedly used in the crime.