J-K: Missing person case takes chilling turn, complainant turns out to be killer

A complainant who approached police in a Jammu and Kashmir village with a request to trace out his missing sister-in-law later turned out to be her killer. 

Identified as Liyaqat Hussain, a resident of Poonch district’s Kunaiyan village, the man has been arrested, police sources said. Liyaqat confessed to the crime during the police interrogation, following which a case was registered against him.

According to the police, Liyaqat visited the police station on December 19 saying that his elder brother’s wife Shakeela Bi had gone missing. Pointing out that her husband was working in the Middle East, he reported that she had left home for Poonch town a day before.

However, the very next day after the complaint was registered, Liyaqat again visited the police station saying that Shakeela’s body has been found, lying in the nearby forests, with her throat slit.

During the investigation, police checked the call details of Liyaqat and found that he had called Shakeela several times the day she had reportedly left home for Poonch and disappeared. This made police suspicious and they went on to enquire about the past record of Liyaqat which revealed that he had been arrested earlier on charges of theft and other crimes.

The sustained questioning by the police finally took the lid off the murder mystery, sources said, adding that Liyaqat and his elder brother had married two real sisters. Liyaqat’s father-in-law had no son and the deceased was very close to her father. The former suspected that he might give his entire property to her, sources added.