New Delhi: Asma lived with her husband and three sons on the ground floor in a cramped house in Khurja’s Nayi Basti where she first met Adnan some three years ago. The 26-year-old bachelor lived on the third floor and did odd jobs, sometimes as a helper with Asma’s husband Salim in hotels. One day, the landlord and the families found out in that the 36-year-old woman would stay for hours at Adnan’s house.
An enraged Salim warned Asma and even made her swear on their three sons that she would stop seeing Adnan. Adnan’s mother Rabiya also asked her son not to meet Asma after which the two chose an odd place to meet—a ‘kabristan’ (graveyard)—in Khirkhani area. In front of the relatives and family members, Adnan would try to hide their relationship by calling Asma his sister.
From then on, the entire neighbourhood at Khurja knew about the affair of the two. Meanwhile some nine months ago, Adnan, a full blown drug addict, got married to Ikra, who eventually left him in Eid this year after the three got into an argument over the affair.
Adnan’s obsession with Asma knew no boundaries and not even his mother could make him understand about how their relationship had turned “venomous” and “vengeful”. Over time, Adnan’s teeth had blackened, lost his mind, and his body wasted due to his addiction to “solutions” and other injectable drugs.
Nearly three years later, Asma was found dead in the same kabristan with her throat slit and thighs stabbed. The burqa was partially open, and blood had stained her pink kurta as she lay motionless on the ground in the scorching June heat.
The kabristan authorities have now locked the gates. “None from the authorities was here when the murder took place. I had also gone home after the morning ‘namaz’ due to the extreme heat,” said Mohammed Abir, who is responsible for gatekeeping the graveyard’s entrances and exits.
Ever since the murder took place, there is also a strict look out for couples trying to sneak in at the graveyard.
Adnan, the key suspect, was arrested just hours after the murder was reported to the police. He was chargesheeted in nine days for murder. On 27 August, a fast track court sentenced him to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000. The judge noted that the prosecution has proved their case beyond reasonable doubt and that the court believes that he attacked the woman with the intention of killing.
Sanjay Dutt fan, anger & drugs
Adnan suspected Asma was having an affair with someone else and was keeping in touch with her new found lover using the mobile phone he had gifted her.
There were six witnesses and the prosecution’s prime witness Wahedeen told the court that she had witnessed the murder but fled away, scared.
The police informed the court that the investigating team recovered the knife that was used in the crime along with blood-stained clothes of the accused near the walls of the graveyard. The forensic report established that the blood stains were Asma’s.
The defence argued that there was no witness to the recoveries in the case and termed it “planted”.
However, the key evidence listed in the charge sheet was a media statement of the accused, hours after he was arrested wherein he referred to himself as ‘Ballu’. A Sanjay Dutt fan, Adnan said he was inspired by the actor’s character in the movie ‘Khalnayak’.
“She betrayed me in love and there is only one punishment for betrayal — death. I cut her throat with a knife. She took away my 2.5 years of income and fell in love with someone else… I am a fan of Sanjay Dutt… I won’t be encountered, I committed only one (murder). If I had committed 10 murders, I would also be killed in an encounter. I would kill someone if they betrayed me in friendship as well,” Adnan says in the video, adding that he would blow up with a bomb all those who dare to point fingers at his family.
The convict displayed no remorse in the video. Neither did he express any remorse when he was taken to the court on the day of the final arguments. He posed for the media persons, asking them to “have fun” with his pictures.
“He would cry when they fought. He told me one day, ‘Ammi (mother), I bought her a phone for Rs 10,000 and she is using it to talk to a new man’. He wouldn’t tolerate it. Even as a child, Adnan had anger issues. He would constantly be high on drugs. I tried explaining on several occasions to let go of Asma, but he wouldn’t listen. One day, he told me to get his wife back from her maternal house. I told him she won’t come back till he stops taking drugs,” Rabiya recalled.
Uneducated and laden with extreme poverty, Adnan was drowned in substance abuse. Whatever meagre earnings were spent on drugs. As he would sniff away the solution, songs of Sanjay Dutt would play on his mobile phone. On a few occasions, he would be found lying inside his house in Khirkhaini, watching movies of Sanjay Dutt on a loud volume. He would hardly visit his parents and lived by himself most of the time.
“I knew something would go wrong. He would be angry all the time. His head had stopped working. He couldn’t talk about anything else apart from how he feels betrayed and used by Asma. There was no coming back for him,” Rabiya said.
In 2021, Adnan, his brother Afnan and father Sajid were booked for physical assault and criminal intimidation. The fight had broken out after Afnan was accused of sexually assaulting a minor boy. Afnan was booked under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
A ‘quick’ probe
In the morning of 11 June, Adnan asked Asma to meet him once again in the graveyard. He was waiting there with his friend Aamir, who is also an accused in the murder case.
The previous day, according to investigators, Adnan had bought the knife to kill Asma. As Asma entered the graveyard, Aamir stood guard as the duo talked. Within minutes, it broke into an argument as Adnan checked Asma’s phone.
The murder took place around 8:45 am, and graveyard authorities and local residents found the body around 11 am.
“Aamir claimed that he thought that Adnan was just threatening Asma. He stood 30-40 metres away from them as they were talking and suddenly Adnan stabbed the woman and told him that they had to run,” a senior police officer said.
For two hours after the murder was reported, the body couldn’t be identified. Police sources said that the area is too crowded and most people live on rent. It was then that an input was received that a man after committing a murder was roaming around looking for a lawyer.
This helped the police zero down on the victim’s identification, the motive and the suspect. Waheedan was found and she claimed to the police that she had witnessed the murderous attack.
The investigating team recorded the statements of the accused’s family members, Asma’s husband (on the basis of whose complaint the FIR was lodged), Waheedan and the doctor who had vetted the autopsy report. The charge sheet consists of 13 case diaries listing out the progress in the investigations, recoveries and statements recorded.
While delivering the verdict, the court noted, “from the analysis of the evidence available on record, it is clear that each of the above circumstances is in itself irrefutable and strongly proved and all the circumstances taken together point in an irrefutable manner towards the guilt and involvement of the accused in the crime. The accused had no reason to be falsely accused”.
Back in Nayi Basti, Salim has vacated the room that he and Asma lived in. The couple’s sons between the age of 6-11 now live with their maternal grandparents in Jhajjar.
Asma’s sister-in-law Nayeema feigns lack of interest in the case when asked about the murder. But, when asked about the affair, without any hesitation, she said, “We lived separately. Everyone knew she was roaming around with a drug addict.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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