B'luru: Nine, including 2 minors held for murder

Police have arrested nine persons, including two minors for allegedly murdering a 33-year-old scrap merchant and dumping his body by the roadside here.

The arrested are identified as Nadeem Ahmed (23), Shabbir Hussain (23), Mohammed Shafi (23), Tabrez Pasha (23), Tanveer Pasha (21), Hanan Pasha (20), Mohammed Mubarak (21) and two others.

On April 30, the accused had abducted the victim Zoheb Abrar, a resident of Chandra Layout in a Tata Ace vehicle. The accused had plastered Zoheb’s mouth and nose to threaten him. However, he died due to suffocation and the accused dumped his body by the roadside here.

Meanwhile, the victim’s mother filed a complaint suspecting an acquaintance of Zoheb’s wife Shabreen in the murder. Acting on her complaint and after verifying the CCTV footage, police arrested the accused persons.

Zoheb and Shabreen were married for five years and had two children from the wedlock. Reportedly, Zoheb noticed that Shabreen was conversing a lot with Nadeem and had warned her against it. As per a TOI report, Nadeem decided to teach Zoheb a lesson and abducted him but did not intend to kill him.

It is not immediately clear if Shabreen was involved in the murder, police said.