A woman left her home on Saturday to get fodder for cattle, but she never returned. Her blood-soaked body with multiple stab wounds was found in a field in an Uttar Pradesh village on Sunday. She was tortured with a screwdriver and killed by the man who claimed to be in love with her.
When Saira did not return home till evening, her family searched for her everywhere. Her body could only be found the next day when they went to look for her in the fields in kotwali Mainather in Moradabad. The police initially suspected that she was raped before her murder as she was bleeding from her private parts. However, the postmortem confirmed that she wasn't raped and also indicated that she was stabbed with a sharp weapon.
During the investigation, police found five missed calls on Saira's mobile phone. When the number through which the calls were made was investigated, it was traced to a man named Rafi who lives in the same village as the woman.
Saira's mother, Safina, told police that Rafi used to harass her daughter. Police then took Rafi into custody to question him. During the interrogation, Rafi admitted to the police that he had killed Saira.
'Took A Bath, Went To Sleep After Murder'
"Rafi said that he loved Saira, but she didn't reciprocate his feelings. He said that a few days ago, she had got him beaten up by a man from the village. He suspected that Saira was in a relationship with the man who thrashed her," he said.
After the incident, he stalked Saira for two days. On Saturday, he followed her to the field and stabbed her with the screwdriver 18 times, police said.
"When Saira started writhing in pain and begged for her life to Rafi, he pierced her private parts with a screwdriver. She died soon after. He then shook her, and when he was sure that she was dead, he went home, took a bath, changed his clothes and went to sleep," the police said.
They revealed that he had stabbed Saira around 18 times. Rafi has been arrested and a probe is underway, the police said.
(With inputs from Mirza Ghalib)
