19-year-old was strangled, police lodges suo motu FIR of murder

The Ghaziabad police on Friday said the 19-year-old woman, who died in mysterious circumstances at her home in Islam Nagar on Wednesday night, was strangled to death and registered a suo motu case of murder against unidentified persons

The Ghaziabad police on Friday said the 19-year-old woman, who died in mysterious circumstances at her home in Islam Nagar on Wednesday night, was strangled to death and registered a suo motu case of murder against unidentified persons. Her two older brothers are being questioned by the police while her mother has absconded, senior officers said.

Ghaziabad, India - November 04, 2022: A relative of Sameer Gulfasha mourns after the later died of poisoning, in Ghaziabad, India, on Friday, November 04, 2022. (Photo by Sakib Ali /Hindustan Times)

According to the panel of doctors that conducted the autopsy, the after woman, identified as Gulafsha Kasgar, died of “ante-mortem manual strangulation”. Police believe that she was killed because of her involvement with a 24-year-old man, whom her family did not approve of.

The incident was reported to the police early Thursday by Gulafsha’s younger sister, a minor, who allegedly told the police that her brothers and mother together killed her sister. A police team immediately reached their home and prevented the family from carrying out Gulfsha’s funeral rites. The police ordered an autopsy by a panel of doctors and waited for the autopsy report before registering the FIR, senior officers said.

On Thursday itself, police picked up Gulafsha’s brothers Mohammad Toheed, 25, and Mohammad Moheed, 26, and the two allegedly admitted to killing her by suffocating her with a pillow early Thursday morning.

“The police received the autopsy report on Friday evening and it stated that the woman was strangled. The police have lodged a suo motu FIR of murder against unidentified suspects. Two of Gulafsha’s brothers are being questioned at length while their mother Shamsheeda has absconded. They are the prime suspects in the case. Formal arrests will be made soon as investigation progresses,” said Muniraj G, senior superintendent of police.

“We will also ensure that victim’s younger sister gets security and no one harms her as she is also the prime witness in the case. We already got confessional statements from the brothers,” the SSP added.

Sources in police said that Gulafsha’s brothers allegedly strangulated her in her bedroom, while her mother held her immobile. Police sources said the autopsy report mentions that Gulafsha had multiple abrasions, bruises and scratch abrasions on her upper body, which indicated a struggle with her assailants.

Gulafsha’s friend Sameer Salmani, a resident of Dasna Gate in Ghaziabad, has provided two audio clips as evidence and said these were recordings of what took place in Gulafsha’s bedroom on Thursday early morning.

He said one of the audio clips is a mobile call conversation between him and Gulafsha around 9pm on Wednesday in which she her brothers have brought an “injection to kill her and she needed immediate help”.

“The other recording is of early Thursday, around 3am. Her sister was also present at the scene and was pleading to her brothers and mother to leave Gulafsha alone. She called me up from the bedroom she kept the call going. The clip is about 12.40 minutes long and discloses a lot about the murder,” Salmani said.

He said he met Gulafsha about 10 years ago through her cousin and they have been friendly since.

“My family was not opposed to our marriage but hers was. They stopped her studies after class 12. She insisted that the marriage should take place with the consent of her family and she was trying to convince them. On Thursday, we were to go to a Ghaziabad court to submit papers for a court marriage. Gulafsha probably told her family about it and that probably must have enraged her family,” Salmani added further.

“The audio clips given by Gulafsha’s friend are likely to be linked to the incident as per the suggested timings. We are confirming these with the call record details,” said Anshu Jain, circle officer (city 1).