COURTESY HT OCT 29
Shooter got gun from uncle’s friend
Leena Dhankhar
leena.dhankhar@htlive.com
Gurugram : Two days after a 20-year-old college student was shot dead by a stalker and a friend after a botched abduction attempt outside her college in Haryana’s Ballabhgarh, a probe revealed that the prime accused got the weapon from his maternal uncle’s friend in Nuh a few days ago.
Police said the stalker Touseef Ahmad’s maternal uncle, identified only as Islamuddin is currently serving a 10-year term in Bhondsi for kidnapping a police inspector in Gurugram on June 30, 2016. They added that Ahmad spoke to his uncle and allegedly asked him to arrange a countrymade pistol , following which the latter’s friend, Azru, provided him with a weapon. Inmates lodged in Bhondsi jail can contact family members , said officials.
Police said that statements of the eyewitnesses were yet to be recorded on Wednesday but would be done this week.
OP Singh, Faridabad’s police commissioner, said: “The special investigation team has identified four eyewitnesses and has collected technical and other evidences against the accused which are enough to hold him guilty in the court. The SIT is questioning the accused and his friend for more details in the case.”A police official familiar with the investigation said on condition of anonymity that Touseef Ahmad told police that he suspected that the victim was in a relationship with another student ; that he had tried to talk to her about it but she wasn’t taking his calls and blocked him on WhatsApp; and that he got angry and planned to murder her.
Singh said two classmates of the deceased tried to chase the accused who fled in his car but they could not get hold of him. The entire incident has been captured in the CCTV footage, he said. Ahmad and his friend who accompanied him during the shooting, Rehaan, were tracked down by the police in Nuh and arrested on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, state home minister Anil Vij said, “The main accused behind the killing of a 21-year-old college student in Ballabhgarh is related to some Congress leaders from Haryana and it was under their pressure that the victim’s family had withdrawn an earlier complaint lodged against the man in 2018. The SIT will probe the events from 2018. It will be probed under what circumstances the girl’s parents were forced to give an affidavit to take their complaint back then.”
The minister added that it will also be probed why “pressure was being built on Nikita to convert, despite her outright refusal”.
Commenting on the manner in which the accused shot the victim dead in broad daylight outside her college, he said, “I will not allow this kind of ‘dadagiri’ in the state. The accused will be punished in accordance with law.”