Young woman falls for firebrand Molvi, murdered husband

SRINAGAR: Srinagar: A wife’s “abnormal behaviour” after her husband’s death has led, two months later, to the police arresting the wife and her paramour, a cleric famous for his firebrand oratory who leads prayers in a Nowgam mosque, for the murder of Abiroo Shafi, a young man who lived in Salfia Colony in Nowgam.

A local daily Kashmir Reader Reported, Shafi died in March of what seemed like natural causes. But the “abnormal behaviour” of his wife made his family members suspect foul play. They went to the police with their suspicions and the police began an investigation.

Two months later, a cleric identified as Tanveer Molvi, belonging to Pulwama’s Lelhar, and Abiroo’s wife, whose maternal home is in Alochi Bagh, Srinagar, have been arrested on charges of murder.

According to police, Abiroo was killed by his wife along with the Molvi according to a carefully thought out plan.

Shafi’s wife is the mother of a 6-year-old daughter. She was married to Abiroo Shafi almost seven years ago. Her and the Molvi’s arrest followed the exhumation of the body this Saturday. Police said they were waiting for the autopsy report but the killers have confessed that they administered some tablets to Shafi before killing him.

The investigations were carried out by a team of police officers led by SDPO Pantha Chowk..

Abiroo Shafi, son of Mohammad Shafi, was one of three brothers. While the two were living with their father, Abiroo was living slightly away from them in a nuclear family.
Police sources said that the family had taken their son’s death as normal, till his widow started behaving abnormally. She would talk to somebody on phone for most of the night and she was not as sad as she normally should have been. This led to strong suspicion that something bad had happened.

When the police started investigations, it came across various perceptions of the case. “We were told by Shafi’s friends that he would tell them that the Molvi was a fake. He would say that what the Molvi does not believe in what he speaks in the mosque,” one investigator said. “He even told his friends that the Molvi had physical relations with women, which was un-Islamic.”

Shafi, according to police, had sought help of a friend in tracing the call records of his wife. It were the phone records that ultimately nailed the duo.

The Molvi, barley 26 years of age, was considered to be an impassioned speaker and an impressive orator. “People would close down their shops at noon to ensure they had space in the mosque. The Molvi was very impressive in the content of his speech and its delivery,” the investigators said as reported by Kashmir Reader. “It was this fame that helped the young man from Lelhar to get famous in the kitchens of families.”

The Molvi is a bachelor and rarely went home to Lelhar, the police investigators told as quoted by Kashmir Reader.