NAB lawyer’s son, gym trainer, maid held for murder


Shahzad Jillani July 31, 2010

KARACHI: A young model, who claiming to be the son of a deputy prosecutor-general with the National Accountability Bureau has been arrested along with two other people on charges of murdering a domestic servant.

The victim, Rajeshwar, was killed on July 2, allegedly by his wife Hina and two accomplices, 22-year-old Manoj and 26-year-old Wasif Ellahi. Rajeshwar and Hina worked at the Clifton Block 4 house of a woman identified as Roshni Begum.

Manoj is a fitness instructor at the Life Style health club in Tauheed Commercial, Defence Housing Authority, while Ellahi, a model by profession, has told the police that he is the son of Muhammad Aslam Butt, a deputy prosecutor-general with NAB, Sindh.

The police arrested the three suspects after an encounter on July 28 near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi roundabout. The suspects have been charged with the murder of Rajeshwar and looting jewellery from the owner of the house where the victim and his wife worked as domestic servants.

The Boat Basin police registered an FIR (No. 400/2010) under Section 302/352. The accused men have been kept in a lockup at Clifton police station and Hina is being detained at the Women’s Police Station in Saddar. According to the police, Ellahi drove a Toyota Vitz car which was used in the crime.

According to the police, Hina was romantically involved with fitness instructor Manoj. Model Ellahi, also the editor of a fashion magazine, was a member of the gym where Manoj taught. According to the police, Manoj and Hina had allegedly planned to kill Rajeshwar as they wanted to get married and needed the money to elope, while Ellahi wanted the money for a bigger car.

The trio decided to steal valuables from Roshni Begum’s house as she lives in the US and only comes to Karachi for the summers, said the police.

According to the police, on the night of July 2, Hina let the other two men into the house through the kitchen door. As soon as the men entered the servant quarters, they slit Rajeshwar’s throat and killed him.

Later, Hina pretended there was an emergency and knocked on Roshni’s door. When she opened the door, all three of them tied her up and looted all her jewellery.

The police claimed that they had found the stolen jewellery, which included Belgian diamonds worth Rs2.5 million. The accused tried to sell the diamonds at various shops but failed to succeed as jewellers would become suspicious, said the police. The blood-drenched footsteps of the three accused were also found all over the house, investigations revealed.

The accused were produced in court for an identification parade in which Roshni identified the three culprits, said SSP Investigations South Zone-I Muhammad Younis Chandio.

Ellahi has rejected the charges levelled against him and blamed the police for trying to frame him in the wrong case. “I have not committed any crime, neither have I killed anyone,” Ellahi said while talking to The Express Tribune from behind bars.

He said that he was a famous model and owned a fashion magazine, and thus did not need to stoop so low for money. He also denied having links with Hina.

For his part, Manoj claimed that he was Ellahi’s fitness trainer and that is how they became friends. He admitted that he was friends with Hina but denied any involvement in the murder.

Rajeshwar and Hina had two children. Their 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter study at St Patrick’s High School. Manoj’s children also attend the same school.

IG Sindh Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak announced a reward of Rs100,000 for the police team involved in the encounter that caught the suspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2010.

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