BENGALURU: The Basavanagudi police have cracked a ‘zero-clue’ home alone woman’s murder within 36 hours of it being reported on Saturday evening. The police arrested the woman’s son-in-law, who confessed that he murdered her as she had stopped helping him financially. He also nurtured intense hatred towards the woman as he thought she conducted black magic rituals targeting him which prevented him from coming up in life, the police said.
The accused, Mohammed Akhil Ur Rehman, 38, a resident of R.K. Garden on South Cross Street in Neelasandra, was working as an executive in a stock broking firm in Domlur.
After Sayeeda Unnisa, 54, was found murdered in the bedroom of her house on Khaja Street in Mohammedan Block on Saturday evening, the police had formed special teams to crack the case. “It was a totally blind case as the assailant had not left any clues at the scene of crime. But our staff, after investigating all angles, zeroed in on the culprit based on a definite clue,” DCP (South) Dr. Sharanappa S.D. said.
An official privy to the investigation said that their initial suspect was Afzal Ahmed, the husband of the deceased. “We had almost decided that he was the murderer as there were no other leads and it was revealed that the couple did not share a very good relationship. Also, during the questioning, we felt that Ahmed was trying to hide something and we suspected his role in the murder, though there was no material evidence against him,” the official said. “But when we summoned Sayeeda Unnisa’s daughter and son-in-law for questioning on Monday morning, we got definite leads in the case,” the official said.
Mark on hand gave the lead
Rehman, who was normal while the police recorded his statement, started fidgeting once they started collecting his fingerprint samples. “Most importantly, we noticed a small mark on his right hand as we collected the fingerprints. When we asked him how it happened, he did not give us a convincing answer and this raised our doubts. He was asked to wait and his fingerprints and those found at the scene of crime were extrapolated and they matched. When we confronted him with the evidence, he gave in easily,” the official said.
“He revealed that his mother-in-law was helping him financially earlier. But over the last few months, she had stopped giving him money and was asking him to move to Dubai to earn more. But he was not willing, as he loved his two children and did not want to stay away from them. Meanwhile, he had lost money investing in shares and was angry with Sayeeda for not helping him. He also said that Sayeeda took his wife and children frequently to religious places which he did not like. He thought that she was conducting black magic rituals targeting him, which prevented him from coming up in life,” the official said.
Planned murder for six months
Rehman reportedly decided to finish off his mother-in-law some six months ago. “Since then, he watched crime-related programmes on TV everyday to learn how he could leave no clues at the crime scene. He finally decided to murder her on Saturday. Using a duplicate key which he already had, he entered her house in the afternoon, as he knew that she would be alone at that time. She was sleeping in the bedroom and he tried to smother her using a pillow. But when she resisted, he took an iron box kept next to the bed and hit her on the head. He then pulled out a knife that he had brought and stabbed her multiple times on the face and neck. Before leaving the spot, he removed her clothes as it had his bloodstains on it,” the police said.
