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Couple held for killing, dumping woman’s body in Pune’s Mutha River
The accused have been identified as Ashpak Abdul Khan, 51 and his wife, Hamida Ashpak Khan, 45 – both from Narvir Tanaji Wadi, Shivajinagar
Brother and sister-in-law have been arrested by the Pune city police for their alleged involvement in the murder of a woman whose torso was found in a river in the Kharadi area, officials said.
The accused have been identified as Ashpak Abdul Khan, 51 and his wife, Hamida Ashpak Khan, 45 – both from Narvir Tanaji Wadi, Shivajinagar. The deceased has been identified as Sakina Abdul Khan, 48, who was working as a housemaid.
On August 26, Sakina’s torso was recovered from near Waterfront Society in Kharadi by the police. During the investigation, the police analysed information from nearly 200 missing complaints reported by the Pune city, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and Pune rural police since August 1.
The police deployed a drone, water boat and CCTVs to get information about the deceased. The police roped in officials from the irrigation department, Khadakwasla dam but failed to get more information. Meanwhile, the police commissioner also announced a cash prize for sharing information about the deceased. A total 100 police personnel from Chandan Nagar police station formed five teams to crack the case.
The police received a tipoff about Sakina who had gone missing since August 23. Acting on the information, the police approached the accused who failed to give satisfactory answers. Meanwhile, the police confirmed the identity of the deceased as the sister of the accused.
Ranjan Kumar Sharma, joint commissioner of police, said, “Ashpak and Sakina were siblings living in their ancestral house and there were disputes between them over the house. Prima facie, the house is owned by Sakina and Ashpak was asking her to transfer it on his name but Sakina was not ready to do so.”
Sharma said that prima facie there were disputes between the brother and sister and on the night of August 23, Ashpak attacked his sister and strangled her with a rope. According to the police, Hamida aided Ashpak in the murder and later in chopping Sakina’s dead body near the washroom of their house using sharp weapons. In order to evade police action, they threw the body into the river.
Himmat Jadhav, deputy commissioner of police (zone 4) said, “As per inputs shared by the informer, we approached the relatives of the accused and accordingly on August 30, a missing complaint was registered at Shivajinagar police station.’’
Jadhav further said that after analysis of the information collected, they arrested the accused and during interrogation, he confessed to the murder.
The police have not received anything from the accused and have formed teams to search for the remaining parts of the dead body. The police revealed that Ashpak, who works as a garage mechanic and moonlights as a watchman, has children who are currently out of the city for education purposes. The police are investigating the involvement of other individuals if any.
On Sunday, the two accused were presented before a Pune court. Police officials informed that the court has remanded the accused to police custody till September 9.
