Murder accused approaches NGO, says police framed him

Bengaluru: A 24-year-old murder accused, currently out on bail, has approached the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), an NGO, for retracting his confession statements to the police stating that the HSR Layout police had framed him in a murder case. The police had booked him for the murder of a 20-year-old woman, who was set ablaze in February this year.

In a letter to the APCR, the murder accused Anjarul Hoque S.K. had not only accused the police of torturing him for confession, but also claimed that material evidences were planted by the police during the time of spot mahajar (spot inspection) that was conducted during the investigation.

Anjarul Hoque was released on bail on September 23, after spending seven months in the Central Prisons in Parappana Agrahara. He was booked for murder and causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen the offender. According to an APCR activist, who is looking into Anjarul’s case, the bail was granted as he was the one who informed the victim’s parents about the incident.

Hoque has been accused of killing Vandana, a native of Bangarpet, with whom he reportedly had an affair, by setting her ablaze after gagging her mouth with her dupatta near a shed in Sarjapura on February 26. “Anjarul had called victim’s parents over five times on February 27 morning to inform them about the incident after he learnt about the woman’s burnt body was discovered by few occupants of the labour shed. Based on this fact the court had granted bail to the accused,” said Khaleem Ullah, a member from APCR.

“Though Anjarul had admitted to the police that he was in relationship with Vandana for over a period of 3 months and on the fateful night he had sent a text message and even tried to call her to which she did not respond, the police tried every trick in the book to frame him in the murder as his was the last communication on the victim’s phone,” said Khaleem.

“I was tortured with the ‘Bombay Cut’ method (where a person’s hands are tied behind his back with a cane going under his both arms and he is either suspended upside down or made to squat on a chair) to accept that I committed the murder. Due to the excruciating pain, I had no other choice than to let them write whatever they want about me committing the crime,” said Anjarul in his letter to APCR.

Moreover, on March 1, before he was taken to the crime spot for the spot mahajar (inspection), Anjarul claimed that the cops had planted a water bottle filled with about 50 ml of kerosene and a knife a little farther from the spot where the body was found. The mineral water bottle with the kerosene at the bottom had droplets of water still from its inside, he stated in the letter. “The cops demanded that I should not open my mouth and just nod at them to whatever they say as senior police officers like DCP and ACP would keep observing me, and I had no choice other than to do whatever they said as they reminded me of Bombay Cut repeatedly,” said Anjarul.

Members of the APCR have taken up Anjarul’s petition and are fighting for his justice. A senior investigating officer told this newspaper, “We have done our investigations thoroughly and have submitted the chargesheet and it’s up to the court to decide.”