Woman accused of decapitating husband, dismembering his body

Sohail’s family refused to accept Rubab as his wife; suspect says victim was an abusive tormentor

KARACHI:

A man was brutally killed, decapitated and his body was dismembered at an apartment on the Abdullah Haroon Road in the Saddar area within the limits of Preedy police station on Monday.

Police suspecting that wife of 70-year-old Sheikh Sohail killed him, South District SSP Zubair Nazir Sheikh said.

The deceased’s wife, Rubab, was arrested from the crime scene with hands and clothes soaked in blood, SSP Naz said. She has confessed to her crime in a video statement, however, police will conduct a thorough investigation into the case, the SSP said.

“Sohail was allegedly killed by his wife and his body was found in pieces inside their residence. Police have arrested the suspect and collected evidence from the scene and further investigation into the incident is underway,” he said.

Meanwhile, Preedy police station officials, who had reached the crime scene to arrest the suspect, said that it was unlikely that the suspect acted alone. “It is hard to believe that a woman killed and dismembered her husband alone,” a police officer said.

Moreover, he said, Rubab was dazed, as if she was intoxicated and could not speak clearly. However, the police investigator said, things will become after complete investigation.

Also read: Mistrustful man kills wife for ‘leaving house sans permission’

Police officials said that the victim’s family has denied that Rubab was Sohail’s wife. The family members of the victim said that Rubab had come to their home near the Tariq Road a year- and-a-half ago and claimed that Sohail was her husband and that he should bear her expenses and give her an allowance a Muslim woman deserves under the Naan Nafqa clause.

The woman initially denied the murder, saying she was the victim's wife. According to police, there were blood stains on the woman's hands and clothes and all the evidence was against her.

However, later she broke down during questioning at the precinct and gave a video statement confessing her crime of slaying her husband, decapitating him and dismembering the body.

The video of the accused woman was obtained by The Express Tribune in which she said that the victim was an abusive tormentor who forced her to live with him but his family never accepted her as his wife. “Sohail used to threaten me that he would implicate my father and brother in theft cases and forced me to stay with them. When I would protest, he would threaten to kill me,” she said in her statement.

Rubab claimed that whenever she resisted Sohail, he would show pictures of corpses, and tell her he would slay her just like that.

Preedy police have registered a case of premeditated murder against Rubab on the complaint of Sohail’s son Sheikh Shahid.