Srinagar, Oct 8: Skeletons have started tumbling out of the cupboard in the murder case of Rukhsana Jabeen of Batamaloo who was last month allegedly killed by her husband, Manzoor Ahmed Mir, a police constable.
 Since July this year, she had been fearing a threat to her life and had approached police for protection.
 Rukhsana’s family said the accused had attacked her several times since she returned to her parental home around a year ago.  An employee with health services, she had to face one such assault on July 25, the family said.
 “The moment she was to get into the ambulance, he (Mir) attacked her and abused her, apart from snatching her mobile phones,” her family told Greater Kashmir.
 Soon after the attack, Rukhsana and her family had approached the local police station.
 “But the Thana people suggested that we should file a complaint with the women’s police station,” the family said adding they acted on the advise.
 The head of Women’s Police Station Ram Bagh, is understood to have called both the parties face-to-face looking ahead for “an amiable solution to the domestic feud”.
 Manzoor, as per the women’s police officials, was accompanied by two of his colleagues who volunteered to act mediators in solving the issue “without police intervention.”
 Rukhsana’s family said: “Madam (Women’s police official) had asked us to report back if the issue wasn’t resolved amicably. But we continued with amicable mediations hoping to find a peaceful resolve without police involvement.”
 A few days prior to Rukhsana’s murder, the duo mediators had visited her parental home.
 “They informed us that we should go for divorce because he(Mir) was reluctant to end the relation,” the family said adding that her being childless had been a main reason of the marital discord.
 “October 3 was set the day for divorce when her dowry was expected to be returned,” the family said. But three days prior to that, the woman was found dead.
 Her brothers said that apart from harassing Rukhsana, Mir had threatened of getting them killed in a fake encounter.
 “Fake encounter threat had been his last resort because prior to that he failed to get us trapped in some other fake cases,” the brothers said.
 Showing a clean chit from Police for “non involvement in anti social/antinational activities,” the family alleged that Mir had tried to get them booked by lodging a complaint with the police.
 “Detailed verification was conducted by the police post regarding the allegations made by the unknown complainant against the subject… In reply this police post informs through a return signal that the subject is not found involved in any kind of subversive activities,” reads a copy of the letter pitched by the local Police Post.
 Pertinently, Rukhsana was found dead at her parental home on the morning of October 30.
 Her family said the body bore visible marks of strangulation on the neck.
 While the police has filed a murder case and arrested the accused, the SP south City Muhammad Irshad who is personally monitoring the case said the investigations were going on smoothly.
 “Prima facie reveals it’s a murder case,” he recently said.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST