Woman’s father, brother among 3 held for murder of UP interfaith couple | Mumbai News

An officer said that the murders came to light when personnel of RCF police station were investigating the case of an unidentified body of a man found in a well at an isolated telecom factory area in Govandi on October 14. Police registered a murder case after the body was found with throat slit. Police also published his photograph asking for information on him.

Inspector Pramod Kokate said that with the help of technical evidence, they managed to establish that the body belonged to Chandra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh who came to the city a few days ago with his wife. “When we started looking for his wife, Gulnaz, she was also missing,” Kokate said.

After preliminary investigation, police found that Gulnaz’s family had been unhappy about her marrying outside their religion and had called them to the city to resolve the issue.

“We began questioning Gulnaz’s father Gora Raisuddin Khan (50) and brother Salman Khan (22) and found that they murdered the couple,” said DCP (zone VI) Hemraj Rajput.

Based on their interrogation, police arrested the duo, along with Salman’s friend Mohammad Kaif, and detained three other minors alleged to be involved in the murder.

Gora and Salman who were into garment business would often come to Dharavi in Mumbai for work and stay for long periods. Last year, Gulnaz told her family about her relationship with Chandra. Despite the family’s opposition, the couple got married.

“As time passed, relatives came to know it, following which the girl’s father and brother said they felt embarrassed. They decided to kill Chandra and accordingly called them to Mumbai pretending to be interested in resolving the dispute between them,” the officer said.

Once the couple reached the city, the father-son duo along with son’s friend Mohammad Kaif and three other minors allegedly took Chandra to an isolated spot in Govandi and murdered him by slitting his throat. They then threw the body into a well.

Later in the night, when Gulnaz started asking about her husband, the accused worried that she would complain against them and took her to Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai under some pretext. “There they strangled her using a rope and disposed of her body in the jungle,” the officer added.

The accused took the police to the spot where the body of Gulnaz was disposed of and police recovered it. An officer said that they arrested the accused on Monday and produced them before the court on Tuesday when they were remanded in police custody for 11 days.