- ‘4th woman’ under CB lens, summoned for statement
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, Sept 24: With an apparent intent of passing off the Sainik Colony murder case as a road accident before the gruesome incident came to the notice of the senior police officers—who later ensured the registration of an FIR and transfer of the investigation to the Crime Branch—attempts were made to tamper with record and wash off the crime scene, sources said.
“And this was done by some people who are either in the custody of the Crime Branch, the agency investigating the high-profile case, or are under its radar,” they said.
However, the Crime Branch is yet to conclude whether the tampering of record or attempts to clean the crime spot were carried out with the connivance or knowledge of the suspended police officers—Inspector Deepak Pathania, then SHO Channi Himmat; PSI Wasim Bhatti, then Incharge Police Post Sainik Colony; and PSI Rohit Sharma, then IO in the case, sources added.
Regarding the progress of the investigation so far, they said the premier probe agency of the J&K Police has collected evidence from the crime spot, including photographs, bullet shells, bloodstains on the walls, clothes, and cut-outs of the bullet marks on the walls and doors of the physiotherapy centre in Sainik Colony area, where the incident occurred last month.
They said the evidence was also lifted from JK Medicity Hospital, where the injured women were initially taken to as road accident victims, and later to ASCOMS Batra, and GMC Jammu, where one of them, Mehjabeen Akil Sheikh, succumbed during treatment on August 29.
Meanwhile, during questioning of the two individuals, who ran the physiotherapy centre, and one of the injured women—who is also the sister of the deceased woman from Mumbai’s West Malad area—the Crime Branch, according to sources, has established the involvement of a “fourth woman”, who allegedly helped the centre’s owners tamper with record and clean the crime scene.
She has been accordingly summoned by the premier investigation agency to record her statement.
“The exact role of this fourth woman in the crime will be known shortly as the investigation in the case proceeds. Her statement and revelations before the investigation agency will also help the investigators trace and nab the accused, who is still at large,” sources added.
It has also come to light during investigation that a total of eight rounds were fired by the accused, who allegedly stormed into the physiotherapy centre in frustration, while searching for this fourth woman being questioned by the Crime Branch, sources further said.
“Once the accused is arrested, the Crime Branch will also find out the suspicious role of the suspended police officers, if any, in the crime,” they said.
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