Woman, lover held for murder of driver in Noida

A 22-year-old woman and her 28-year-old lover were arrested by the Expressway police on Saturday afternoon for the alleged murder of an auto-rickshaw driver

A 22-year-old woman and her 28-year-old lover were arrested by the Expressway police on Saturday afternoon for the alleged murder of an auto-rickshaw driver, whose body was found on September 3 in Sector 168.

The two accused in police custody at the SSP office, Sector 14A, in Noida, on Sunday. (HT Photo)

The victim, Mohammad Israfil, 24, had gone missing from his home in Barola on September 2. His body was found the next day from a desolate forest area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Expressway police.

According to the police, the accused woman and her lover, Rahim, had known Israfil for nearly four years.

“Rahim and Israfil belonged to the same village in Bihar called Katihar, and were friends. Nearly four years ago, the duo was travelling by train. The woman, who hails from Muzaffarpur, came across the two men, when she boarded their train by mistake. The duo helped her reach home,” the senior superintendent of police(SSP), Ajay Pal Sharma, said.

The police said that all three of them exchanged numbers and kept in touch. After some time, Israfil and the woman, who works as a domestic help in Delhi, started meeting each other, the police said, adding that Rahim was working in Bihar, while Israfil was working as an auto driver in Noida.

When the woman refused to meet Israfil anymore, he threatened to disclose their affair to Rahim, the police said. “The woman decided to tell Rahim herself. Both of them hatched a plan to murder Israfil. Rahim came to Noida on September 2. The woman asked him to meet her at the Noida City Centre. She took Israfil to a desolate place in Sector 168, while Rahim followed them. Once they were in a secluded area, the woman blindfolded Israfil on the pretext of actualising a sexual fantasy, and then slit his throat. After Rahim reached the spot, they smashed Israfil’s head with a stone to hide his identity,” Sharma said, adding that the duo then fled, and Rahim went back to Bihar.

According to the SSP, a police team arrested Rahim from Bihar. “We tracked him after we got to know about Israfil’s extramarital affair. The duo has confessed. We have also recovered the auto,” the SSP said.