Agra: According to investigators looking into the murder of five, 24-year-old Mohammed Arshad, along with his father Mohammed Badar, meticulously orchestrated the murder of his mother and four sisters, two of whom were minors. Their plan involved a trip to Ajmer, booking a hotel in Lucknow, purchasing blades, and intoxicating the victims with alcohol. The victims were strangled and their wrists were slit on the night of 31 and 1 January. The chilling case came to light after Arshad posted a video confession.
On the morning of 1 January, the five bodies were recovered from room No. 109 of Hotel Sharan Jeet in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and, according to a senior officer of Lucknow Police, the post-mortem report revealed that the 49-year-old mother, Asma, and the youngest daughter, who was 9, died due to strangulation.
“The cause of death of the remaining three family members is said to be shock and excessive bleeding (haemorrhage),” the senior police officer said. The other three sisters were aged 16, 18 and 19 years.
“The viscera (internal organs) have been preserved for detailed analysis,” the officer said.
Sources said that there were no signs of struggle and police have recovered the dupattas, scarves, and blades used in the crime.
According to sources in the Lucknow and Agra Police, Arshad and his father had chalked out a “well thought out” plan to carry out “pre-meditated murders”.
“We told them that there’s no one to look after them if my father and I die. We convinced them that death is the only way out and that we would also kill ourselves,” Arshad allegedly told investigators during questioning.
‘Once father is caught, things will be clearer’
In the video uploaded to his social media account the night of the murders, Arshad confessed to the crime, claiming it was because his neighbours wanted to grab his house. His father—co-accused in the case—can also be seen suffocating one of the sisters in the video that was widely circulated.
Hours later, Arshad, after dropping his father off at the Charbagh railway station, surrendered at the Naka Hindola police station. The police have booked Arshad and Badar, under Section 103 (punishment for murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
With Arshad in the custody of Lucknow Police, teams are now looking for his absconding father.
A source in the Lucknow Police said, “Arshad has been repeating the same things he said in the video during questioning. It is as if he has rehearsed these lines from a script. Not once has he changed his words. Only once his father is caught will things be clearer.”
“He said he and his father convinced them,” the officer added.
Another officer in the Lucknow Police said, “Arshad has claimed that it is his father who had bought the alcohol and the blades in Lucknow after they reached. He said that it (the alcohol) was his father’s idea, in order to make sure that they can’t fight back.”
But, the officer added, “He (Arshad) could also be putting the blame for this on his father. Further investigation is on. Once the father is arrested, they will be confronted face to face.”
Not clear why Lucknow
The family travelled to Lucknow from Agra, where they lived in Islamnagar. The father and son sold clothes on a cycle, and Arshad sold grocery items outside his house as well.
Investigators said that, according to Arshad, the family left Agra and reached Rajasthan’s Ajmer on 18 December and spent several days at the Ajmer Sharif dargah. Neighbours told ThePrint that the family would visit Ajmer frequently.
Arshad told the police that they travelled on to Lucknow on 29 December, staying at a railway station at first and then checking into Hotel Sharan Jeet on 30 December after visiting the Khammam Pir Shrine in the city. That day, the family also made a trip to the Imambara, among other tourist sites, the investigation has revealed. So far, it isn’t completely clear why they chose Lucknow to commit the murders.
Lucknow Police sources also revealed that a video was shot in Ajmer in which Badar talked about their intention to carry out the murders. Investigators are now probing why they didn’t do so at the time.
The Lucknow Police also said it appears that Arshad went to great lengths to create a story around injustices being meted out to his family and had intentions to appeal to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Another source in the Lucknow Police said, “After committing the murders, he sent the video to some journalists (on WhatsApp). He had also sent copies of his complaint in the IGRS portal to journalists before the murders, but no one bothered.”
“It seems like he had thought that these claims would bring him and his father some sympathy because, so far, no evidence has been found to support his allegations against neighbours. It appears like he did all of this to package his story.”
Sources further said that the hotel staff had only seen Arshad and his father coming and going and that the female members of their family never left the room.
On the day that Arshad and his family left Agra, a neighbour, Samina recalled Arshad’s mother crying.
“I asked his mother, ‘Baaji where are you going?’ She said Ajmer. She was weeping, but I didn’t ask anything more because Arshad and his father are ill-mannered and constantly verbally abuse all neighbours,” Samina said to ThePrint. “Arshad then looked behind me and said, you all see how I celebrate new year.”
Several neighbours speculated that the murders were in the making. They alleged that the father had sexually assaulted his eldest daughter, who died two years ago, and could have been doing the same with the other daughters.
Police in Agra and Lucknow are also investigating this angle. “This has come up from several neighbours and is part of our investigation. This will be clear after the father is nabbed,” another source in the Lucknow Police said.
On Arshad’s claims that he wanted to convert to Hinduism and build a temple, his neighbours said he was trying to bring in a communal angle to mislead the police on the murder investigation.
‘Allegations in video unsubstantiated’
During questioning, according to investigators, Arshad said that the two came up with the plan weeks ago, without revealing when they started planning.
“He has said that the father-son duo discussed it after being fed up with the neighbours. They both have been described by their relatives as eccentric and that no one keeps in touch with them,” another Lucknow Police source said.
ThePrint earlier reported that neighbours described the father-son duo as aggressive and said their household was volatile. Some said that they had heard screams from the house in the past. They added that Arshad’s wife left him just two months after marriage due to physical and sexual abuse—allegations confirmed to ThePrint by sources in Agra Police.
However, investigators in Agra and Lucknow said that, so far, Arshad’s claims in the now-viral video and those levelled against his neighbours in a complaint he filed in the Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS) remain unsubstantiated. He claimed that he wanted to convert to Hinduism and accused his neighbours of harassment, alleging they wanted to sell his sisters and grab his land.
In the complaint filed by him on 18 December, he further alleged that they had beaten him up. On the day, according to police and neighbours, a verbal altercation occurred around 9.25 am between Arshad and the neighbour who runs a shop next to their house after a child had accidentally dropped a chocolate box in Arshad’s shop.
Agra Police sources said that when the local police called him within 24 hours, he told them that he was going to Ajmer and then Lucknow and would meet them when he returned.
“Nothing has been found yet to back his claims. We have checked CCTV footage, there was a verbal spat on 18 December. On 16 December, an auto accident hit his grocery shop. He claimed that his neighbour had orchestrated this to make him suffer losses but no evidence has been found,” an Agra Police source said. CCTV footage shows an autorickshaw hitting the edge of the shop at around 6.25 pm on 16 December.
Investigators said they also found evidence that a part of land that Arshad alleged was being grabbed was being sold to the neighbours for Rs 7 lakh.
Asked about Arshad’s allegations of human trafficking, sources in the Agra Police said that nothing so far had come up in the probe about any such gang operating. “Further investigation is on,” an officer said.
Agra Police have called people Arshad named in his video for questioning.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
An incarnation of the devil himself.