A few weeks back the Uttar Pradesh police arrested Mohammad Shamshad after investigations revealed that he killed a woman and her daughter and buried them under his bedroom.
Mohammad Shamshad had posed himself as Amit Gurjar and befriended a Hindu woman named Priya over Facebook in 2013. Priya who was divorced with a child was lured into marriage by Shamshad. She along with her 2 year old daughter moved to Meerut to live with Shamshad in 2013.
It was reported that Priya and her daughter had been missing since March 28, 2020. Priya had last spoken to her best friend Chanchal on March 28 after which her phone had remained switched off. A concerned Chanchal had then filed a missing complaint with the police. But the police had forced her to withdraw her complaint for reasons unknown. Later, an activist from Bajrang Dali named Manish Lohia had apprised the Meerut SSP of the matter following which SSP Ajay Sahani launched an investigation and nabbed Shamshad from his house in Meerut.
Later, the police recovered the dead bodies of Priya and her daughter by digging up Shamshad’s bedroom. Shamshad had buried them and poured 20 packets of salt to dry them out so that they get mummified. The police later bulldozed the entire house of Shamshad.
Chanchal’s account
Chanchal had been Priya’s closest friend with whom the latter had shared everything about her life. In a conversation with OpIndia, she discloses the events leading to the unfortunate death of her friend and the child.
Priya had got divorced in 2012 and had moved to Modinagar where she and Chanchal became friends. Priya used to work in a parlour and would leave her daughter Kashish at Chanchal’s place.
Chanchal and her family took care of Kashish during the day until her mother returned in the evening. It was around that time that Shamshad (as Amit Gurjar) contacted Priya through facebook. He had spun lies after lies to lure Priya who fell into his trap. He had even promised to set up a parlour for her and made her quit the job she had.
Things seem to have been rosy in the beginning with Shamshad (Amit Gurjar) pampering Priya with his sweet talks and actions. In 2015, both of them got married at a temple. They had moved to Kashiram. It is here that Shamshad’s true identity started to crack open and his radical nature started showing up. He started abusing her every day. When Priya used to go out for work, Shamshad commented that “women who work outside are prostitutes”. He even wanted to stop the schooling of Kashish. He would say to Priya “What kind of clothes you buy for her? Dress her properly and teach her Urdu.”
Shamshad had forced Priya and her daughter to convert to Islam. He forced them to go to mosques, read the Quran, recite Islamic prayers and live by Shariat.
Priya and Shamshad later moved to Shamshad’s house in Meerut. Earlier at Kashiram, she had a small temple for herself to worship. Priya had given this small temple to Chanchal saying that she can’t bear disrespect to her Gods meted out by Shamshad.
In the new place, Shamshad did not even allow her to have a temple. Priya used to burn incense sticks and Shamshad would get irritated because of the smell and smoke. Priya was an ardent devotee of Sai Baba. Shamshad used to beat her and force her to stop worshipping her gods.
He forced them to go to Jamaat. But Priya kept enduring all this for the sake of her daughter. She was also under the influence of societal pressure – what would people think of her if she gets separated from a man once again?
From then on, Shamshad abused her every day. He even tried to create a rift between Priya and Chanchal. But Priya trusted her friend more than her wretched husband. The lockdown period became a nightmare for Priya as he started abusing her physically and mentally daily. During one of the fights, Shamshad twisted Priya’s hand and tried to strangulate her throat.
Every time a fight happened Priya would leave the house with her daughter but Shamshad apologized and brought them back. Priya kept in touch with Chanchal and used to narrate all the horrors that happen to her on a regular basis. In her last conversation, Priya had mentioned about how Shamshad brought a lot of men to the house. Priya had told Shamshad that it was not right for many men to come here during the corona times. To this, Shamshad had supposedly told Priya that it was his house and he could bring anyone he wanted. He also refused to believe that corona virus was spreading.
However, on the night of March 28, Priya’s phone went off. Chanchal had tried calling Priya several times but she couldn’t reach her. She thought that Priya blacklisted her number. Chanchal called Shamshad who had picked up and told her that he was busy and would call her back later. She had called in the evening and Shamshad had told her that Priya was angry and didn’t want to speak to anyone. Suspecting that something was not right, Chanchal had later called Priya’s neighbours on March 29 and 30. Priya had given the numbers of her neighbours to Chanchal for use ‘in case of emergency’.
When she called one of the neighbours, she was informed that both Priya and Kashish were not at home. She got even more suspicious. She requested the neighbours to hand the phone over to Shamshad. Shamshad had not expected that Chanchal would have the neighbour’s numbers. He had cooked up a story to Chanchal saying that Priya stabbed him and ran away with all the money in the house along with Kashish. When asked how he was able to stay clam in such a situation, he blamed Chanchal saying that she conspired along with Priya. Right then, Chanchal had understood that Shamshad must have done something to them.
Shamshad then tried to fake evidence by sending a message from Kashish’s phone to Chanchal saying “Didi, we are safe wherever we are. We left the house after the accidentally stabbing daddy. We took the money. Please do not do anything; otherwise, we will be great trouble.”
Days passed and Chanchal received no information on her friend. She then filed a complaint with the Partapur police station on April 15. However, the police had given a clean chit to Shamshad. Enraged, she voiced against the apathy shown by the police. The police had even come to Chanchal’s place and spoke with her and her family to not pursue the case. But that wasn’t going to stop Chanchal.
In one of her visit to the police stations, she stopped noticed Priya’s scooty. She raised the matter with the police but did not take any action. They asked her if she is okay with visiting Bihar to which Chanchal agreed.
Meanwhile, Shamshad was sweating over Chanchal’s efforts over getting justice for her friend. He started to threaten her and said that he would tell people that she is a prostitute. But Chanchal gave a foot to his threats. Later, Chanchal approached several Hindu groups who visited police stations with her. But nothing helped.
Finally on July 2, Chanchal gave it all up and wrote a letter that she is letting go of the matter as it is causing mental stress to her. She just hoped and prayed that her friend gets justice.
VHP comes to the rescue
Hearing about all this, Manish Lohia of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad reached out to Chanchal on July 12 to offer all support in bringing to light the plight of her friend. Chanchal who was vexed with various organizations leaving her alone refused to accept Manish Lohia’s offer to help. However, Manish guaranteed that he would get justice for her friend. Within a few days, Manish reached out to all higher officials. A case was registered on July 14. He was informed that CO Bhupendra would look into the matter.
Manish had continuously kept in touch with the CO asking him to share all the details with him. He also asked them to find out where Priya’s phone was last used and when it was switched off. Due to the consistent pressure, the police worked faster and got Shamshad arrested but he was released within a few days after interrogation.
Manish had asked why the man was released to which the police had replied that further inquiry would be conducted only based on the evidence Chanchal provides. Manish then helped Chanchal gather all the evidence. Seeing the prima facie evidence and sensing that there was no possibility of delaying the case, Shamshad was nabbed again and investigated thoroughly.
During the investigation, Shamshad did not disclose anything at first. But later when he asked about how long he would have stay in the police station, the inspector replied that he could leave once they find mother and daughter. Shamshad then confessed that he had killed them and buried them under his bedroom.
Initially the police refused to believe but Shamshad had kept repeating the same thing again and again. At 4 AM, the police dug the location and recovered the decomposed bodies of the mother and daughter.
मेरठ : प्रिया और उसकी मासूम बेटी को मारकर शमशाद ने कहां छिपाया, देखिए…pic.twitter.com/r0y8ZCOhqe
— Sachin Gupta | सचिन गुप्ता (@sachingupta787) July 23, 2020
Events leading to the murder
Shashad was supposedly married and had a wife named Afsana with whom he had 3 kids. Afsana had come with her kids to Meerut to claim Shamshad’s property. Once Priya had come to know of his true identity, she wanted the property to secure her future.
Both Priya and Shamshad fought a lot over this issue. On the night of her murder too, they had an altercation over this. The argument was over a transaction of Rs.3 lakh, and it escalated at around 10 PM.
That dreadful night
After the fight, Priya was cutting vegetables when Shamshad tried to attack her. Priya had used the knife in her had as defence when it injured his hand. Enraged, he strangulated her and later stabbed dead body multiple times. He then went for Kashish and suffocated the child to death with a pillow. He threw the bodies in to the bathroom and went to get stitches for his hand.
It is alleged that his brother-in-law was with him on 28th March at the time of the incident. Shamshad had later dug a 8 feet pit in his bedroom to dump the bodies. He sprinkled 20 packets of salt on the bodied to dry them out and plastered the floor again so that no one gets suspicious.
Shamshad’s escape and encounter
Reports mentioned that Shamshad had tried to escape police custody. He was later arrested after an encounter when he was shot at his legs. The police then admitted him to a hospital for his injuries.
The case now
Police have arrested another man named Nakul Sharma for his role in the brutal murder of mother-daughter duo. He was caught following a video that went viral in which he can be heard saying that he would give ₹1 crore to save Shamshad. He is said to have destroyed all evidences to secure Shamshad. He is also said to have mislead the police.
It was also found that Shamshad had planned to kill Chanchal too. The SHO, inspector and sub-inspector are being investigated for their inaction and attempt to divert by pointing fingers at Chanchal. Shamshad will be booked under the NSA. Shamshad’s house has been demolished.
After bodies of Priya and her daughter were found from house of Shamshad, police demolished his house as seen in video below.
Unusual but innovative. I think it would send a strong message in the area and hurt the accused's family financially pic.twitter.com/PnnGlUfgqN— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) July 23, 2020