Police crack mystery of hotel manager’s murder
PHOTO: REUTERS
Police have cracked the mystery of a hotel manager's murder that happened at Cantt Station less than two weeks ago. They have arrested three madrassah graduates who, according to police, confessed during interrogation that they had killed Qazi Mumtazul Haq, manager of a charpoy hotel, to avenge the molestation of their friend.
Haq was murdered at Cantt Station on September 16 and the case was registered at Frere police station. Initially it appeared a blind murder, but 12 days later, the investigation team cracked the mystery as it arrested three young men, identified as Muhammad Rashid, Naveed-ur-Rehman, and Muhammad Shahid, during a raid in Sohrab Goth.
According to Investigation Officer (IO) Naeem Awan, the suspects were identified with the help of footage obtained from the CCTV cameras installed on buildings in the area in which three men could be seen entering the hotel manager's room.
The police investigators prepared photos of the suspects from the video footage which helped them to gather information about them, Awan told The Express Tribune. The investigators found out that the suspects would rent charpoys at a cheap roadside 'charpoy hotel' after looking for jobs during the day, he added. "However, they went missing since the manager's murder."
The police then widened the scope of their investigation and obtained the call data of the deceased which helped them trace the location of the suspects in Sohrab Goth. On Wednesday, they raided an address there and took the suspects into custody.
During interrogation, one of the suspects, Naveed-ur-Rahman, 17, claimed that the hotel manager had called him to his room where he molested him, according to the IO. The three then made a plan to kill him in revenge. They have confessed that they entered the manager's room and overpowered him before smothering him with a quilt, the IO claimed.
The suspects, who belong to Neelum Valley in Azad Kashmir, are madrassah graduates who came to Karachi in search of employment.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2022.