The Delhi Police on Sunday said that two stepsons of Rehana, the 40-year-old wife of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA from Bulandshahr Haji Aleem, were behind her murder. The brothers are on the run but Nadeem, a 30-year-old driver they had allegedly roped in for the crime, has been arrested.
Danish and Anas are Mr. Aleem’s sons from his first wife Kehkasha alias Kamar Jahan.
According to the police, the two held a long standing grudge against the victim as they held her responsible for the deterioration in their relationship with their father.
“The fact that Rehana had a lot of property on her name irked them further and they hatched a conspiracy to kill her,” said a senior police officer.
After his marriage to Kehkasha, the MLA had married once again before marrying Rehana. His second marriage had not lasted long.
Investigations revealed that both Danish and Anas did not attend the last rites of their step-mother. Their mobile phones were found to be switched off. While Danish went missing immediately after the incident, when Anas was asked to join investigations, he too went underground.
The police officer said the fact that there were no signs of forced entry into the victim’s house pointed to the siblings.
“Forensic evidence suggested that a Tata Safari vehicle had been driven to the New Jaffrabad house where the incident took place and local inquiries revealed that Danish, Anas and Nadeem had left their house in Bulandshahr in a Safari. This further corroborated our suspicion,” said the officer.
Nadeem, who worked as a driver for Danish’s business partner Arif, was often called by the latter to drive his car. As per Nadeem’s confession, Arif told him to go to Bulandshahr on October 7 and he reached the following day. That evening the three accused left for Delhi and on the way, Danish and Anas told Nadeeem that they would kill Rehana and promised him a hefty sum of money to assist them.
The police first raided Nadeem’s house in Meerut, but he was missing. He was eventually arrested from Shaheed Nagar on Seemapuri border on Sunday.
“Nadeem told us that it was around 6-30 p.m. on October 8 that they reached Rehana’s house and Anas entered first, followed by his brother and Nadeem. Danish was carrying a pistol and Nadeem had a knife in his hand. Using their respective weapons, the two shot and stabbed Rehana, and after the murder fled the spot,” said the officer.
The police have not given a clean chit to Arif so far.
