A 30-year-old woman was killed and buried by her husband over a suspected affair in Delhi’s Mehrauli. The murder case mirrors the plot of the Bollywood movie Drishyam. Three persons have been arrested in connection with the case. 

The accused, identified as Shabab Ali (47), Shahrukh Khan (28), and Tanveer (25), have been booked under Sections 103(1) (murder), 238(A) (disappearance of evidence), 61(2) (common intent), and 140(3) (kidnapping with intent to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The fourth accused, whose identity has not been disclosed, is still at large.

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The accused, Shabab Ali, 47, a painter from Uttar Pradesh's Amroha, suspected his wife, Fatima, of infidelity and killed her, police said. To cover up the crime, he tried to make it appear that she had eloped with her lover, but CCTV footage exposed his plan. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) South Ankit Chauhan, the accused forced his wife to drink pesticides and gave her intoxicating pills for five days before killing her.

The couple has two children, a daughter who is 11 years old and a son who is five.

How The Murder Was Planed 

The case came to light when Afsana, a friend of the deceased woman, Fatima, lodged a missing person report at the Mehrauli police station on August 10. Afsana informed the police that she had received multiple phone calls from a man based in Dubai, allegedly Fatima’s lover, who said he had been unable to contact her for several days. Suspecting that Fatima had been kidnapped and was being held hostage, Afsana filed the complaint.

Following the report, the police interrogated Fatima’s husband, Shadab Ali. He initially claimed that he no longer lived with his wife and was unaware of her whereabouts. However, as the investigation progressed, CCTV footage surfaced showing Fatima with Shadab and his associates. In the footage, she appeared unconscious.

During questioning, Shadab initially denied any involvement and even claimed he had thrown her body into a canal to mislead the investigation. Later, he confessed to murdering Fatima, stating that he suspected her of having an extramarital affair, which led him to plan her killing.

According to Shadab, he gave Fatima some pills that rendered her unconscious and took her to a house in Fatehpur Beri, where he was overseeing construction work. He kept her there until July 31. During this time, he allegedly fed her pesticides. When she began experiencing pain, he took her to a compounder, after which she was brought back to their house in Mehrauli.

Fatima Died On August 1

The following night, Shadab and his associates, Shahrukh Khan, Tanveer, and another unidentified person, put her body in a car and transported it to a cemetery in Mehrauli. There, they buried her and discarded her clothes in a nearby canal, according to DCP Chauhan.

In an attempt to cover up the crime, Shadab returned to his native place in Amroha and sent himself a text message from Fatima’s phone, falsely claiming that she had eloped and intended to marry someone else.

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Based on Shadab’s confession, police exhumed Fatima’s body from the Mehrauli cemetery on August 15, in the presence of a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), about 11 days after her death. Shadab, Shahrukh, and Tanveer have been arrested, while the fourth accused remains at large. The car used to transport the body has also been recovered.