Bank executive in police custody over model girl’s murder

Police have found evidence which suggests that a girl accused of murdering an aspiring model last month may have done so out of jealousy, as the investigation of the 40-day-old murder took another turn on Tuesday when police detained a third suspect.

One of the arrested accused Uzma Rao alias Tooba had claimed that a private bank’s executive was also involved in the murder. On Tuesday, police detained the suspect Farooq from outside a bank.

Abeera, 20, had shifted to Lahore from Sialkot to study at a private university. Initially, she lived with her maternal uncle but later she moved to a girl’s hostel on Wahdat Road.

According to the police, the young girl wanted to become a model and her passion led her to make-up artist Tooba.

An investigation officer said on condition of anonymity that Tooba told them that another ‘friend’ of hers named Farooq had killed Abeera. She said that Abeera wanted to become a model and hence contacted her to help her make a career in the modelling industry.

The officer said Tooba used to live with Farooq and had introduced Abeera to him 10 days before her murder.

Delineating the details of the night Abeera was killed, Tooba said the hapless girl came to their house where Farooq took her to a room and locked it from inside. “After a couple of minutes, she heard them having a fight inside the room but kept on cooking dinner in the kitchen,” the officer quoted Tooba as saying.

“Tooba further told that after some time she heard Abeera screaming at Farooq and asking him to fulfill his ‘promise’.” The officer added that after a couple of minutes, Tooba heard Abeera weeping after which Farooq opened the door.

“She said that the girl had died by then and Farooq packed the girl’s body in a bag and asked her to dump it anywhere and left the home,” the officer said.

The officer further said Tooba then hired a rickshaw driver, Aslam, who helped her pick the bag and took it to a bus stand on Bund Road, where she left it and came back to her house.

SP Iqbal Town Dr Muhammad Iqbal Khan said that the police buried the girl after autopsy.

“We found poisonous substances – arsenic and nitrate- from Tooba’s house which the accused said Farooq had with him on the day Abeera was killed,” the SP said.

Further, he said the exact cause of the death could not be known. However, torture marks were found on the girl’s body by the police while autopsy report suggested that the girl was strangled.

The official added another FIR of the case was lodged under Section 302 against Tooba and the rickshaw driver. The driver was taken by the police as an accomplice at first, as Tooba stated that the rickshaw driver had murdered Abeera.

Meanwhile, sources said that police had found several pictures of Abeera’s at Tooba’s house in which the latter had distorted the deceased’s face with a pencil. “These pictures show that Tooba was envious of Areeba’s beauty and may have played a more prominent role in the murder. Farooq’s statement will help us in reaching a conclusion,” they said.