Audio of ex-kho kho player screaming before murder helps UP Police arrest accused

A man has been detained in Uttar Pradesh for reportedly murdering a 24-year-old national-level kho kho player whose body was found at a Bijnor train station. The perpetrator has been apprehended with the help of an audiotape shared by a friend of the victim.

The incident occurred about 2 pm on September 10 when the Dalit woman was going home after a job interview. The accused, Shahzad alias Hadim, a railway station labourer, spotted her and dragged her to the cement railway sleepers, where he attempted to rape her.

When the woman tried to call for aid while she was on a call to a friend, the accused strangled her with her own dupatta and a rope. Before she became silent, the woman’s friend overheard her crying for assistance on the phone.

The accused fled the spot with the woman’s cellphone and left her on the same cement sleeper. Her battered body was subsequently discovered in a pool of blood. Her relatives said she had been raped. The accused had turned off his phone when he got home, but the police tracked out its last location and eventually apprehended him.

A shoe and two damaged buttons of a garment belonging to the accused were also found at the crime scene. According to the authorities, the clothing of the man revealed blood spots, that were subsequently cleaned by his wife. The woman’s companion gave the police the phone recording, which included muffled screams from the woman while she was being assaulted. The man was apprehended based on this evidence.

Also Read: Ex-kho kho player found dead on railway track in UP, family alleges rape

The girl reportedly left nail marks on the back of the accused as he was forcing himself on her, police said. The samples were submitted to a pathologist for a post-mortem examination to see if the nail markings matched the woman’s DNA.

The accused, who is a drug addict, is married and has a daughter. He has four accusations filed against him at the local police station, for allegedly stealing items from the railway station. The matter was initially investigated by the Government Railway Police, but it was eventually moved to the Bijnor Police Department.