Deep in debt, uncle and aunt abduct, kill girl

Wednesday 1.30pm: Shiba Nisar, a teacher at Dhanraj Phoolchand Hindi School, Neelasandra, East Bangalore, looks for her sister Rathiba Nisar, 7, a class 2 student in the same school. Rathiba's teacher tells her the child has gone home with a burqa-clad 'Aunty' who told school authorities the child's grandmother had had a cardiac arrest. Shiba calls her mother Shamina, and learns that her grandmother is fine, and the family's youngest child has not yet reached their Neelasandra home.
Shiba questions Rathiba's class teacher and learns that the burqa-clad woman who claimed to be Rathiba's aunt, came around 12.45pm. The teacher was convinced when Rathiba greeted her with 'Hello, aunty'.
3.27 pm: A text message lands in Shamina's mobile. In broken Urdu, the sender says he's kidnapped Rathiba and demands a ransom of Rs 10 lakh. The messenger says he would call again around 8pm. The message is repeated at 3.29pm and 3.48pm.
4pm: Shamina rushes to Ashoknagar police station and lodges a complaint. She is accompanied by younger brother Salman AH Pasha, 28, and Shiba. Her husband Syed Nisar Ahmed is out on business.
4.30pm: Ashoknagar police summon Rathiba's teacher, who says the child recognized the woman and called her 'aunty'. "I've seen her face clearly and can recognize her," she tells police.
5pm: Police commissioner Raghavendra H Auradkar sets up a special team comprising two ACPs and six inspectors.
7pm: The team finds the mobile phone from which the ransom messages were sent, was active in Bharathingar. Plainclothesmen fan out in the area in search of the child and the burqa-clad woman.
8pm: Police scan the abductor's phone number and find Shamina had received a call from the same number in January. The number was found to be active near Ashoknagar earlier in the evening. "Our suspicion that the abductor was close to the family was confirmed," says Auradkar.
9pm: By then, Salman, the girl's uncle, has come several times to the police station to asked if they had found the kidnapper. They find his behaviour suspicious and detain him.
10pm: On learning that Salman lives in Bharathingar, his interrogation is intensified. "Initially, he refused to answer but broke down when we told him the teacher had recognized his wife," sleuths said.
11pm: Police recovere Rathiba's body from beneath Salman's cot. His wife Shabarina, 20, is arrested. The couple admits they strangled the girl with a veil. Shabarina was the burqa-clad aunty who had picked up the child from school.
Abductor panicked
Rathiba Nisar would have survived if Salman Pasha had not gone to the police station with his sister when the kidnap complaint was lodged. Salman was present when Rathiba's teacher told police she could identify the burqa-clad 'aunty' who took the girl from school.
A panicky Salman rushed home and blasted his wife Shabarina. "When the teacher said she could recognize the woman, I started worrying. I came home and shouted at my wife for not covering her face. Afraid we'd be caught, we decided to kill her," Salman later told police.
Salman was in the business of supplying fish food to aquarium traders. After running up huge debts, he turned to burglary and was earlier arrested on a few charges. Salman then decided to abduct his niece.
His brother-in-law Syed Nisar Ahmed, who worked as a quality engineer in various Gulf nations for 13 years, returned to Bangalore six months ago and wanted to start a business here.
Salman had 40 sim cards and five mobiles with him. He used one of them to send the ransom message.