TThe Kamakshipalya police on Thursday arrested a couple who allegedly killed a relative in Bengaluru and dumped the body in a stormwater drain in Andhra Pradesh seven years ago. They drove to Anantapur in a scooter with the body, said the police.
At the time of the murder, the couple Mohammed Ghouse (39) and his wife Heena Kousar (27) lived in Bengaluru but they later relocated to Andhra Pradesh. They were arrested when they returned to the city on Tuesday to attend the last rites of another family member.
According to the police, Ghouse is a tailor, and while in Bengaluru, he and his wife lived in Hegganahalli . “He had incurred huge losses and took a loan from local money lenders. But when he couldn’t pay them back, a distant relative of his wife’s, the victim, Wazeer Pasha, stepped in to help them,” said a police officer.
However, as a favour, he wanted to have an intimate relationship with Kousar. “Ghouse found out and objected, following which Wazeer demanded that the couple pay him back immediately,” the police officer added. It was then that they decided to murder him. “They invited Wazeer to their house with the promise of making it up to him. Ghouse hid in the room while the victim was alone with Kousar, and strangled him to death.”
The couple stuffed the body in a plastic bag, covered it with shreds of cloth and drove on a two-wheeler all the way to Kaveti Nagepalli town in Anantapur. They dumped the body in a stormwater drain and returned to Bengaluru. It was discovered by the jurisdictional police who registered a case of unnatural death and even filed a B-report before the court after failing to establish the identity of the deceased .
Meanwhile, when Wazeer did not return home, his wife Ayesha filed a missing person’s complaint. The case went cold for several years, until a few months ago, when Ayesha approached the police again. “She had information that her husband had visited the accused. But when we went to their house, it was empty,” said a police officer.
The police started tracking the duo and to their surprise learned that Ghouse and Kousar were returning to Bengaluru to attend the last rites of Kausar’s grandfather in Sunkadakatte. The police detained the couple and arrested them on Thursday. They were produced before the court and taken into custody for further investigations.
