Malviya Nagar murder: Irfan stalked, threatened her, says victim’s family
Mohammad Irfan struck his cousin Nargis around 40 times in a fit of rage with an iron rod after she refused to marry him
The family of a 22-year-old woman, who was bludgeoned to death by a stalker in broad daylight at a park in Malviya Nagar on Friday, said that her attacker had been threatening her in the week that led up to the murder.
According to police, the attacker, Mohammad Irfan, who is the victim’s cousin, went to the Vijay Mandal Park in Begumpur near Sri Aurobindo College in Malviya Nagar with Nargis, and struck her around 40 times in a fit of rage with an iron rod after she refused to marry him.
The scene of the shocking crime, which took place at 11.50am, was about 100m away from a police station, officers said. Nargis and Irfan both lived in Sangam Vihar.
Sameer Khan, 26, the woman’s elder brother, said, “Earlier this week, Irfan had called me to say that Nargis is not picking up his calls, and he threatened to make all their intimate WhatsApp messages and photographs public and destroy her life.”
He added, “Irfan is my cousin, so I tried to reason with him and told him that my sister was also part of his family, but he did not respond to my pleas.”
Nargis’s father Sultaj Khan, 49, a motor mechanic, said, “At around 1pm, when I got a call from the Malviya Nagar police station about the murder, I lost all sense of reality. I couldn’t believe that my brilliant daughter would face such a cruel end. About four months ago, I had called Irfan and his parents to talk about this (Irfan stalking Nargis) and settle this matter, as my daughter was about to get married into a good house.”
Sultaj said that both families had agreed to let the matter rest as they were all related to each other, and he convinced Irfan and his parents to not take this any further. Irfan also agreed to get married to someone else, he said.
There were no problems and no communication between the two for a little while, according to Sultaj. However, he said, Irfan started calling his daughter around two months ago.
“We called Irfan’s parents, and they said they will talk to him,” Sultaj said. “I do not know what they said to Irfan but the result remains the same and today, my daughter is dead.”
Sameer said his sister had been trying to avoid Irfan but the latter kept trying to meet her in front of her coaching centre.
Chinmoy Biswal, joint commissioner of police (south), said, “The post mortem of the body has been completed and the body has been released to the family of the deceased.”