SIT files charge sheet in J&K top police officer Hemant K Lohia’s murder case

Senior Jammu and Kashmir cadre IPS officer Hemant Kumar Lohia, was found dead with his throat slit on October 3. The following day, a 23-year-old domestic help was arrested in connection with his death

SRINAGAR: A special investigation team (SIT) of the Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday filed a charge sheet against a 23-year-old man arrested for killing a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) Hemant Kumar Lohia in October this year, police said.

Undated photo of former Jammu and Kashmir director general (prisons) Hemant K Lohia, who was found murdered in October 2022. (PTI File Photo)

Lohia was the director general (prisons) at the time of his death.

The 1992-batch IPS officer was found dead with his throat slit in the house of his friend on the outskirts of Jammu on October 3. Lohia had come to Jammu a day earlier and stayed with his friend because his house was being renovated.

Yassir Ahmed, 23, a resident of Ramban, who was working as a domestic help at the house where Lohia stayed, was arrested for the murder on October 4.

A police statement said the charge sheet was filed by the special team of the crime branch, which took over the investigation on October 12, against Yassir Ahmed. It said he has been charged with offences under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Arms Act.

“During investigation, all cogent evidences (oral, documentary, circumstantial, expert and technical) were collected by the SIT. Besides, a narco analysis test of the accused was also conducted at DFSL Gandhinagar in Gujarat,” the spokesperson said.

At the time of Ahmed’s arrest in October, J&K police said the domestic help allegedly entered Lohia’s room when the officer was about to go to sleep after dinner. It was alleged that Ahmed bolted the door before attacking him repeatedly with a sharp-edged weapon and then attempted to burn the body.

A little-known group Peoples Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) claimed responsibility for the murder back in October but the claim was dismissed by the police, saying “such propaganda outfits shamelessly own everything”.