A gruesome murder, where an empty cigarette filter gave access to the suspect

In the morning, I was leaving the police station in an official car to present a case in the session court, when a motorcyclist signaled me to stop while entering the police station.

The motorcyclist stopped the bike and ran towards me, panting. As soon as he came, he informed that someone has killed two of his employees, Faqat, 21 years old, and Arshad, 15 years old, in the buffalo premises of Malik Dilawar in Chak No. 203.

I immediately asked the Additional SHO to produce the High Court case and proceeded to the scene of the incident myself.

A murder, and even a double murder, is a crime that mars the entire record of the police station. There are headlines in the newspapers, people start chattering about where the police are, lawlessness has reigned, etc.

Therefore, I wanted to reach the crime scene as soon as possible so that I can get as much circumstantial evidence as possible to trace this double murder and trace and arrest the accused as soon as possible.

Chuck 203 was not far from the EB police station, so in the next ten minutes we reached the crime scene. Malik Dilaw was a wealthy landowner with political influence.

The place of occurrence (cattle enclosure, country Dilawar) was located at a distance of one kilometer outside the entrance to 203 Chak.

When we reached the spot, I got sweat on my forehead to see that there was a Jim Ghafir. How could any important testimony, any evidence, any clue be saved in this creation? However, it was satisfying to see that Malik Dilawar had stationed two gunmen near his compound so that people could not enter the compound until the police arrived.

Malik Dilawar took us along and we went inside the compound. The cattle enclosure consisted of an area of ​​about two kanals surrounded by a wooden fence. A small mud room was built inside the compound with a roof of tin and thatch while the door was also made by a local carpenter by joining a few pieces of wood.

Wherever we found footprints outside and inside the compound, we immediately covered them with a container and secured them.

After a cot and a wooden stool, there was not enough space left for another cot inside this small, rough room. As soon as we entered the room, I saw freshly congealed blood on the floor under the bed and intermittent drops of blood were dripping on the floor.

I went ahead and removed the quilt and found the bodies of the two victims, Raffaqat Ali and Arshad, lying there. Both of them were shot on the forehead, which went off with a splinter.

Rafafat Ali, aged 21, looked quite muscular, while Arshad, aged 15, was of relatively lean build. Perhaps after finishing work, both of them used to sleep on the same bed.

Raffakat was lying upright while Arshad was lying on his side facing the wall. The victims were also cousins. Rafafat had been working here for eight to nine years while Arshad had been working with Malik Dilawar for one and a half years.

Giving the details of the incident, Malik Dilawar said that both Rafafat and Arshad are residents of our village who belong to the Muslim Sheikh community. His whole family works hard in the same village. Both of them were busy taking care of the animals from morning to night and slept in a mud hut built inside the compound at night. I used to come here every morning after Fajr prayer to do the dishes. Both of them would have fed the buffaloes by this time. When I came, we used to milk together and after waiting for an hour, the milk cart would come and take the milk.

As usual, when I reached the premises this morning, the first thing I realized was the sound of the buffaloes, that they were not fed today. I came inside the enclosure and shouted several times to both Raffakat and Arshad, but there was no response, so I pushed the wooden door with force, which opened easily. I shouted at them continuously but both of them did not take the name of getting up. As soon as I pulled the quilt from their bed, the ground gave out from under my feet.

‘Both had bullet wounds on their foreheads. I immediately called two gunmen from my camp and stationed them outside the premises so that no public man could enter before you arrived. ‘

Malik Dilawar also clarified that he has no enmity with anyone.

Apparently this was not digestible but to express my opinion at this moment is tantamount to increasing the pain and suffering of the plaintiff. That’s why I remained silent, but this was constantly going on in my mind that what kind of enmity could these employees on a monthly salary of five thousand have with anyone to kill them so mercilessly?

From the appearance of the crime scene and the bodies, it seemed as if someone had killed them both while they were asleep. I, along with the sub-inspector, sent the two bodies to the hospital for post-mortem and again got busy investigating the crime scene.

Inside the room I found two empty shells which were seized by the individual. From the bullet casings found, it was found that a 30 bore pistol was used for the incident and only two bullets were fired into the bodies of the victims.

The other thing seized from inside the room was bloody soil which I scraped from under the bed and made a parcel and took the sample and sent it to the laboratory for forensic analysis.

It started moving around. Outside the room I found two used cigarette filters. One cigarette was heavily smoked with no indication of the brand, while another had a small portion of the cigarette with a filter that read ‘Gold Leaf White’. I kept those two cigarette filters separately.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the two boys had never touched a cigarette and neither did anyone in Malik Dilawar’s family smoke. The driver of the daily morning milk truck from the premises who was there at that time was also checked. This driver was definitely a smoker but he had been smoking ‘Wills’ brand cigarettes for the past several years.

I made a cursory inquiry to get this information so that I could proceed towards the identification and arrest of my main target, the accused.

I asked Malik Dilawar to call an eminent Khoji from Borewala so that we could find some clues about the Khares and reach the accused through them.

Latif Khoji was very wise and experienced. He made circles with his stick around the few footprints from the beginning of the compound to this dirt room.

It was also found out about the deceased that he was a good Kabaddi and Tansazi player and had shown his talent by participating in Kabaddi and Tansazi (body building) competitions held in nearby villages.

He said that the footprints inside the premises were of the same person coming and going. who was wearing Service Cheetah company joggers. The residents of the area had crowded outside the premises. I left the place of the incident and went to the gathering and began to inquire about the people’s friendship and Arshad slain’s conduct, enmity and secret, declared opposition to Malik Dilawar. My second objective was also to reassure the local people in order to reduce the panic that was spreading due to the repeated and apparently indiscriminate killings.

Everyone in the village appreciated the camaraderie and the behavior of the Arshad slain. It was also found out about the deceased that he was a good Kabaddi and Tansazi player and had shown his talent by participating in Kabaddi and Tansazi (body building) competitions held in nearby villages.

I also told the residents of the area that we will need your cooperation to trace this case and bring it to its logical conclusion. On behalf of the police, I assured them that we will not sit down from China until the arrest of the accused and God willing, the accused will soon be in the grip of the law.

After consoling the locals, I again proceeded to the premises with Hanif Khoji and asked him what further information he had obtained.

Footprints of the jogger were seen walking through the cover and going into the corn field after two or three acres. Following them, we started walking on the path inside the maize field. The soil on the trail was loose and soft, making the joggers’ tracks more visible. At the end of this trail, the field ended and the inner path of the village began. There was a lot of standing water and a lot of mud where it was very difficult if not impossible to escape. So, with the help of the villagers, we barely passed by placing some bricks and a plank of wood and lifting our pants above our ankles. I strongly suspected that if those footprints belonged to the alleged accused, he must have slipped or fallen here.

My suspicion was proved right. On the semi-paved road inside the village, the jogger’s marks became more evident. Hanif Khoji also looked confident seeing these signs. Going to another street, these jogger marks stopped at the camp of Akhtar Shah.

I found Akhtar Shah. He had gone to Bahawalpur this morning for a wedding, but a cousin and servant were there, and we asked them about each person who had stayed at the camp last night.

I made Akhtar Shah’s brother and servant sit in the government car and started inspecting the room built in Akhtar Shah’s camp. I was looking for the joggers who had brought us here from Malik Dilawar. I questioned both Akhtar Shah’s brother and the employee separately, but could not find out anything about these joggers.

While looking around, I suddenly noticed an earthen bowl on the stool which was probably used as an ashtray.

At once I thought of the two cigarette filters found at the crime scene, which I had put in a plastic bag and kept separately. I started looking at the filters inside the bowl. There was no end to my surprise when I found 5/6 cigarette filters of the same brand in that clay bowl that I had picked up from the crime scene.

I began to believe that that caste was helping me to reach the brutal murderer who stained his hands with the blood of these innocents.

I asked my gunman to take Akhtar Shah’s employee out of the car and bring him to the room. As soon as I entered the room, I started threatening Akhtar Shah’s employee that if he did not tell the truth, I would indict him in the double murder case.

Akhtar Shah’s employee said that Akhtar Shah’s two cousins ​​Nadeem alias Demi Shah and Nusrat Shah were present at the camp that night.

Demi Shah and Nusrat Shah were residents of the same village and often used to come to this camp at night for gossip and when it got late, they would sleep here and wake up in the morning and go home.

I immediately sent a police party to Demi Shah and Nusrat Shah who were at their houses. When the Thanedar told them that the SHO was calling them, both of them went to Akhtar Shah’s camp on their own without any hesitation.

I put the employee back in the car and started questioning both Demi Shah and Nusrat Shah separately.

Both of them said in their statements that at night they watched TV late at the camp and slept there. At three o’clock in the morning Latif aka Tafa Jat came to water his land and on his return slept here at the camp.

The questioning of both of them revealed that Nusrat Shah was a non-smoker, while Demi Shah was a chain smoker and smoked Maroon brand cigarettes. Inside this clay bowl were more filters of the same brand. I singled out Demi Shah and asked him about the other smoker in the bowl, and he said without hesitation that it was smoked by Latif aka Tefa Jat.

Akhtar Shah’s brother also confirmed that White Gold Leaf cigarettes are smoked by Latif alias Tefa Jat.

There was no point in wasting any more time. My investigation revolved around Latif alias Tefa Jat and it was impossible for me to proceed without clearing him.

I immediately sent a special police party in plain clothes to fetch Latif alias Tefa Jat.

I also inquired about the conduct, conduct and background of Demi Shah, Nusrat Shah and Akhtar Shah’s brother Sab Sa Latif alias Tefa Jat.

According to the information obtained from them, Latif alias Tefa Jat, aged 28/29 years, was of a restless nature. He had 35 acres of land in the village. Due to his younger brother’s mental disability, the entire area was with Latif Jat, out of which half of the area was cultivated by him and half of the land was leased.

Because of his independence, his crop was often taken care of by his uncle and father. He was fond of watching boats at fairs and fairs.

I asked these Shah Sahibs one after the other about the suspicion of any help in the double murder of Latif aka Tefa Jat, and almost all of them gave the same answer that Tefa Jat cared most about the community in the whole village, how could he have them killed? Is?

On the other hand, I was told by the Sub-Inspector of the Reading Party that when Latif alias Tefa Jat came to know that you had reached the camp of Akhtar Jat, he prepared a bag from home and sat on a motorcycle with a friend and suddenly became a sacker. Got down at the bus stop.

As soon as I reached the police station, an endless stream of referral calls began. Threats started coming from somewhere, offers of huge bribes from somewhere.

We caught his friend and on his cue caught Latif Jat just as he was getting into the Bahawalpur car. He put up a lot of resistance but we got it under control. Now he is in our car.

I congratulated the reading party and asked them to reach the police station immediately and left for the police station myself.

The mystery of the double murder was almost solved but I wanted to know the motives behind this brutal double murder. And the murder weapon was still recovered. I have described in an earlier story how important the instrument of murder is in the investigation of murder.

While going to the police station, I asked Malik Dilawar that he should also come to the police station after the burial of the victims.

As soon as I reached the police station, an endless stream of referral calls began. Threats started coming from somewhere, offers of huge bribes from somewhere. This is the kind of pressure that every police officer has to face at this time. I didn’t want to waste another moment. I strictly instructed the operator to lift the phone’s charger and put it down so that the phone would ring continuously. I closed the main gate of the police station and strictly ordered that the door should not be opened under any circumstances.

After that I called Latif aka Tefa Jat into the room and told him, ‘Tefa! I have no doubt that you have committed the murder because I have witnesses and evidence. You have very little time, no choice but to tell the truth.’

I also convinced him that at that time the phone of the police station is out of order, so no call can come from anywhere to help him.’

By saying this, I also threatened him, ‘You will tell the whole story yourself or should some other attitude be taken with you?’

I immediately called an ASI and told him, ‘Blind his eyes, he has to be sent somewhere. It will not believe so.’

He was taken aback by my sudden harshness and was ready to tell everything, but he requested that he tell me everything in private.

I signaled everyone except my gunman to leave the room. I sat Tafe Jat on the chair in front of me and after hearing the details of the incident and motives from him, I began to write down.

Latif Jat said that ‘we are six siblings, younger brother is mentally disabled, while I have four sisters. We have a lot of respect in the village and the land tenure is also very good.

‘I am fond of wrestling and kabaddi. I have never played a match myself but was sponsoring a fellowship for the past two years to fulfill my hobby. I used to add mincemeat, eggs and milk for the fellowship daily, and I had also ordered body-building equipment from Lahore for the fellowship. I used to take Affaqat as my player in the arena and Affaqat never let me down, he worked hard and often won.

‘Last week he won the first prize at the Shah Jeona Mela so I happily gave him a tape recorder and a deck. But the association told me that he wanted something else, not a deck, which he would tell me separately.

‘I insisted he tell me what he wanted. The association came close to me and said that we are close friends and also brothers. I have to get married, so I want this friendship to turn into a relationship.

‘When I heard him, I turned red with anger and pushed him to leave immediately. The fellowship went back to the premises of Malik Dilawar but my blood was constantly boiling how dare a two-timber Muslim associate with me.

‘Last evening I saw the fellow working outside so I went to him thinking maybe he said that in jest. But the fellowship then repeated the same thing that he was saying all this very seriously. Just then I decided to end it.

‘At three o’clock in the night I took my father’s pistol and reached the fellowship room in Malik Dilawar’s compound and then I pulled his quilt and said, ‘Get ready, I’m here!’ At the same time, I fired the bullet into his skull. Hit the other boy just because he saw me.’

He said that fearing to be caught, he also changed his route and then went to Shah Sahib’s camp so that no one would suspect.

Latif aka Tefi Jat kept talking and I kept humming him. I was disgusted by the sick mentality of this cruel person.

He said that he has hidden the murder weapon i.e. pistol inside the house in a box containing wheat.

On identification of the accused, we seized the murder weapon pistol 30 bore from the individual and sent it along with the empty bullet casings for forensic analysis.

Cheetah jogger of the service which the accused was wearing at the time of the incident was also seized as evidence.

After that, the accused Latif alias Tefa Jat was summoned along with all the evidence. The court sentenced the accused to death twice. That brutal man has met his end.