HYDERABAD: Police on Wed­nes­­day recovered the body of a 25-year-old man from a water tank in the house of the suspected killer who allegedly kidnapped and murdered his own friend two days ago.

The police arrested the suspected killer identified as Naeem Rajput, who admitted his crime.

Ahsan, son of Dr Jamil Kazi, had gone missing on Dec 16 from outside his house in Rehman Town within the jurisdiction of the Pinyari police station.

His family reported the matter to the Pinyari police which allegedly didn’t give a positive response to the family initially.

Later Ahsan’s father, Dr Kazi, currently posted in Larkana district health department, requested the Larkana commissioner to intervene upon which the police started work on the case.

The family received a call for payment of Rs300,000 ransom. The caller wanted the delivery of the payment at Hyderabad’s railway station.

Hyderabad senior superintendent of police Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh told journalists at a briefing that Rs300,000 was arranged of which Rs150,000 was paid by the police to the family.

The family delivered the amount at the decided location, from where the suspect secretly collected the money.

“But the hostage was not handed over to the family. The caller told them to reach Makki Shah to find Ahsan. The family rushed to the area but didn’t find Ahsan despite ransom payment,” the SSP said.

The SSP said that the accused had used the mobile phone of the deceased to contact his family.

The SSP said Naeem and Ahsan had 15-year-old friendship.

Naeem told police that he needed Rs300,000 to buy new mobile phones and some other things, the SSP added.

“Naeem took Ahsan to his home on his motorbike where he gave him some papers to read. Naeem tried to hold Ahsan and after a scuffle hit him with a stick on his head repeatedly,” SSP said.

SSP said that when Ahsan succumbed to his injuries Naeem threw his body in an under-construction water tank of his house as his own family was away.

He added that Naeem then again used Ahsan’s mobile phone to contact his family. The SSP said that after tracing Naeem’s location police picked him up.

“What prompted police to pick up Naeem was the fact that he became an unwanted visitor to Ahsan’s family after his deceased friend’s disappearance and requested that they should pay ransom to the caller to save his friend. Ahsan’s family also cast doubts about his movement,” the SSP told Dawn.

He said that Naeem told the family members to bring money and after placing it on the platform they may leave the area.

He himself collected the money after the family went away.

Police apprehended Naeem on Dec 18 after analysis of mobile phone data of Ahsan and Naeem, he said. The police said that there were some bruises on Naeem’s face and hands due to resistance offered by Ahsan.

Naeem told journalists that he bought two mobile phones, two water-pumping machines and one mobile phone charger.

He said that he only needed Rs300,000 and that’s why he didn’t demand more than that. He admitted that he committed a “huge mistake”.

Police recovered Rs127,000 from Naeem.

Around Rs70,000 to Rs80,000 had been spent by Naeem and he “lost” one packet of currency notes.

The post-mortem examination was conducted and a kidnapping and murder case was being registered at the Pinyari police station.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2018