Woman’s cousin arrested for interfaith couple’s murder

Thane: A man from UP has been arrested for last week’s double murder of a Kalyan interfaith couple. The accused, Shafiq Mansuri (28), is a cousin of Sufiya Mansuri (22), alias Priya Yadav, who was nine months pregnant at the time of her killing. She and Vijay Yadav (30), hailing from a village in UP, had married against the wishes of their families.
Shafiq, who lives in Paliya village in UP’s Hardoi district near Lucknow, arrived at Sufiya’s home in Daighar, Kalyan, last Sunday (September 11).The police said that since he was Vijay’s friend, his family and others in the village were calling him names, saying that he was a mole who helped the couple elope. He killed the couple in the early hours of Monday, by slitting Vijay’s throat with a machete and stabbing Sufiya, said joint police commissioner (Thane) Ashutosh Dumre.
The couple married at the Bandra family court last year. They shifted to their rented flat in Sagar Apartments, Daighar, two months ago. The crime was discovered on Thursday after neighbours complained to the police about stench emanating from the couple’s home. Upon inquiries in the locality, a crime branch team found that on Monday (September 12) a man had sought the couple’s address mentioning Sufiya. A neighbour told the team that a certain Shafiq had visited the couple and that from his accent it seemed that he was from UP. The police team started probing this angle.
“A neighbour who was passing by the first floor flat on Monday saw Shafiq and Sufiya chatting. Upon asking who the person was, Sufiya introduced Shafiq as her cousin,” said DCP (crime) Parag Manere.
The murder was committed in cold blood. Vijay and Shafiq, being old friends, chatted about the baby to be born and celebrate with beer. They drank till late in the night, said investigating officer Nitin Thakre. “Afterwards the couple went to sleep. Around 12.30am, Monday, Shafiq killed Vijay. Sufiya woke up and seeing blood started screaming. Shafiq stabbed her so brutally that the unborn child’s legs came out of her abdomen.”
Shafiq locked the door from outside, went to Kalyan junction and took a train for Hardoi. He kept his cellphone switched off for 18 hours. When a Thane police team reached his village, it rounded up his family, laid a trap for Shafiq and caught him. Thakre said the family can be booked if the police find that they instigated Shafiq.