Ilma and Talib in happier times
Kotwali circle officer Sangram Singh said, “The body will be exhumed. Ilma is under police watch, and action will follow the postmortem report. Based on it, she will be arrested and sent to jail.”
Talib suddenly died on Sept 28.
Meerut : Passed off as a heart attack before he was buried on Sept 29, the death of a 30-year-old mason in Meerut has now turned into a case of suspected murder after his family spotted strangulation marks on his neck in photos found in his “lost” phone. His cousin Mohd Akram said, “Ilma’s family informed us over the phone. Then, neighbours came forward and told the family that Ilma was “close” to Aman , who ran a meat shop, and that the two were often seen together. When the family asked for Talib’s phone, Ilma said it was “missing”. “I was out when my daughter told me her father had been choked to death by someone with my stole. Aman threatened to kill my daughter if I told the murderer’s name,” she said.
Mohd Talib’s family alleged that his wife and her lover murdered him. When we reached the place, Ilma described his death as natural. Talib was buried in Muzaffarnagar the next day. A search later turned up that the phone was deliberately hidden among clothes. Its chats, call details and voice recordings spilled the beans. Reviewing the photos again, the family noticed suspicious marks on Talib’s neck and suspect he was allegedly strangled with a ‘dupatta’. After continuous questioning by Talib’s family, Ilma admitted to the murder but claimed she had no hand in it. When I reached there, he was dead.
Relatives had photographed Talib’s body before the funeral at the graveyard. Some of them raised suspicion after Ilma began packing valuables from the house even before the burial. An FIR was registered under BNS section of murder and police sought DM’s nod to exhume the victim’s body for postmortem, which was granted on Tuesday.