ISLAMABAD: A former capital police official and his wife were arrested on the charge of murdering their son in connivance with hired assassins, police said on Tuesday.

On April 6, the Ramna police were approached by a retired police superintendent, who said his adopted son Asjal Chohan, 19, was found murdered in his home in Merabadi, G-12.

Chohan’s body was found hanging from a ceiling fan, the police said. A medical examination revealed that the deceased was strangled to death and later hanged.

The investigating officer, Sub-Inspector Shafiq Ahmed, told Dawn that circumstantial evidence and the medical report suggested that the killer tried to make it appear as if the deceased had committed suicide in order to mislead the police.

The police investigation revealed that the deceased had been expending his time with the Tablighi Jamaat, the officer said, and had been residing in a two-room house adjacent to his father’s residence.

The deceased’s father retired in 2007, and adopted his son with his second wife in 1997. His wife was also a government official and fell seriously ill in 2007 and died two years later.

When she fell ill, his wife deposited Rs1 million for her adopted son, which he would receive at the age of 21, the officer said. He would also inherit two kanals of land on which a 12 marla house had been constructed.

Chohan’s father married again after his second wife’s death, and his wife’s siblings began living with the couple, which annoyed Chohan.

Chohan objected to their stay which developed into a serious issue, and a two-room house was built adjacent to his father’s residence for him. Chohan moved into the two-room house along with another man, a former naib qasid, who had worked with his mother and had been told to stay with her son at all times.

The investigating officer said Chohan’s father and his third wife colluded against him, and his father offered his domestic employee – who worked at his village near Rawat – Rs600,000 to kill his son.

The employee, his brother and two other individuals then planned the murder and came to the residence of Chohan’s father in early April. The officer said they killed Chohan when his housemate was away.

Three of the suspects went into Chohan’s house, while the fourth remained outside as a lookout, the officer said.

“Chohan was overpowered and strangled, and the killers put poison in his mouth and hanged him,” he said.

He said the employee of the victim’s father was arrested, who revealed the details of the murder. The police then arrested the other accomplices.

According to the suspect, they received Rs200,000 in advance but did not receive the remaining amount. He also claimed the victim’s father told them to keep quiet if they were arrested and he would get them pardoned.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016