SRINAGAR: Police have suspended two officials and initiated an inquiry against Station House Officer (SHO) after the interrogation video of two murder accused went viral in Kashmir.
Last month, Baramulla police had cracked the murder case of 34-year-old man. Police arrested his wife Tasleema and her paramour Ghulam Mohammad Dar for bludgeoning Mohammad Altaf Malik to death in Pattan area.
A month on, the video of police interrogation has gone viral on social media.
“The same has been found to be pertaining to the blind murder case of March 2021 of Police Station Pattan which was solved last month. Both accused had been arrested for the murder of the husband of the woman shown in the video,” said a Baramulla police spokesman.
He said the action in the video is highly unprofessional and unbecoming of disciplined police.
“Two officials have been suspended for the same, inquiry has been initiated against the SHO concerned and a supervisory officer has been reprimanded,” he said.
Altaf’s sudden death had shocked the villagers as he was hale and hearty. Tasleema had created an impression that he died of a heart attack. Married to over 17 years, Altaf had shifted to his in-laws home at Ranji, Pattan in 2010 to earn his livelihood.
“We are devastated. My brother worked very hard to improve the financial condition of his in-laws. And today everyone has seen how he has been rewarded,” Mushtaq Ahmad Malik, deceased’s brother had told The Kashmir Monitor last month.
Mushtaq had filed an application for an investigation into his brother’s death after smelling a rat. “We were told that Altaf had suffered a massive cardiac arrest. On reaching Renji, his wife said he died after taking a spill. It raised doubts even though we were forced to bury the body without properly investigating it,” he said.
Mushtaq said the murder was planned by Tasleema and Dar after Altaf got the whiff of their relationship. “Altaf’s body was kept in a dark room and his wife would often pull the curtains so that nobody notices the injuries on face and head. I somehow saw these injuries and convinced my family for postmortem,” he said.
On March 22, Mushtaq submitted an application before police seeking a probe into his brother’s death.
Police formed a Special Investigating Team and started the probe. District Magistrate Baramulla later issued the order for exhumation of the body. A panel of doctors from GMC Baramulla conducted the postmortem on April 2.
Mushtaq said that the apple trader sent Altaf to Kolkata earlier last year during which he developed a relationship with the deceased’s wife. “Even Altaf and his wife had recently returned from Ajmer. He probably noticed something is wrong between his wife and Ghulam Mohammad Dar, who had accompanied them to Ajmer. Later these two committed his murder to conceal their relationship,” he said.
Mushtaq said the duo strangulated his brother and later hit him with some sharp-edged object. “Tasleema’s behaved as if nothing has happened,” he said.
Police said Tasleema was put to sustained questioning during which she confessed to having committed the crime along with one Ghulam Mohammad Dar.
“On March 8, both gave a final touch to their plan. The woman called her paramour during the night and both bludgeoned Altaf to death. Thereafter they threw the body near a cowshed to camouflage it as death due to slipping,” Rayees Mohammad Bhat, Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla had told reporters.
