Hasan denies relationship, but police interrogate him.
AB Wire
NEW DELHI: Asma Javed, 30, a controversial and fearless advocate for women’s rights, the first woman to contest for the post of president at the Aligarh Muslim University in 2011, was found murdered in her apartment in Aligarh’s Shamshad Market area by the police on Wednesday.
Her alleged live-in partner, a married man who works in the realty business, Javed Hasan, was interrogated by the police on Thursday and has been deemed as a prime suspect in the murder case, according to a police source, reported The Times of India.
The Indian Express reported the victim’s brother Salman Javed filed a missing complaint with the Civil Lines police station as her mobile phone was switched off. “Mother had spoken to her last Thursday and since Saturday her mobile phone was switched off. We asked people in Aligarh to check her apartment and they said that it was locked from outside,†he said.
“On Monday morning, I started from Balrampur at 8 am and reached Aligarh at around 12:30 am, at night. On Wednesday, our relatives in Aligarh told us that the neighbors are telling them about a (foul) smell (from the house). We went there and the police broke the locks and saw her dead body,†Salman Javed said.
“We broke open the doors at 10 am on Wednesday; she had been strangled to death,†said Civil Lines inspector Suryakant Dwivedi.
An official of Aligarh SP J Ravinder Goud told the Express, “Asma had been killed two-three days before her body was found. She had injury marks on her neck and head. According to prima facie reports, she was murdered and whoever murdered her locked the apartment from outside. We are investigating the case and are questioning two persons, with whom she was said to be in a relationship.â€
The Express reported Asma was also reportedly under depression. Her brother Salman said that she was enrolled in a Basic Training Certificate (BTC) course in Hathras. About two years ago, she had completed her PhD from AMU. In the academic year 2010-11, she became the first woman in the history of the university to contest for the post of president in the Student’s Union, eventually losing out to Abu Affan Farooqui.
In 2006, as a post-graduate student in Hindi Department, she had also filed a complaint of sexual harassment against a teacher in the Sanskrit Department and was also allegedly shot at immediately after she had lodged the complaint and had received threat calls.
Later, around 200 students had sat on a protest outside the Vice Chancellor’s residence in her support, the Express reported.
Asma had earlier taken a complaint to police that a restaurant owner in the area had raped her on promise of marriage. In court, however, she withdrew her rape charge, the Times reported.
The Times reported the suspect in the murder case, Javed Hasan, 35, was among mourners after the death, and also attended the funeral. A resident of ADA Colony, Delhi Gate, he is married. On the day the murder was discovered, he had claimed that he was her local guardian.
Police have taken him into custody for interrogation. “We are interrogating Asma’s live-in partner. He does not accept that he was in a live-in relationship with her, but our investigation has proved otherwise,” SP J Ravinder Goud said, adding that the man admitted that he might have been the last to meet the woman.
A police source said he was the main suspect, even though the needle of suspicion also points at a few others. “It appears like a planned murder, one that might have been executed by a gang,” the police source said, the Times reported.