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Sharjah police crack suitcase murder case

The police have cracked the mysterious case of one of the “most horrible crimes in Sharjah”, the murder of a Pakistani who was found suffocated in a suitcase in his house, after his wife could not find him at home and reported him missing.

The police said the brother-in-law of the 37-year-old victim, who was bound and suffocated with pieces of cloth at his apartment in Al Mussala, confessed to murdering him with the help of his sister’s first husband. The pair, who had flown in from Pakistan specifically to commit the murder, had also intended to kill the man’s sister, who is the victim’s wife and the co-accused’s ex-wife.

The first man, the ex-husband, allegedly locked his fellow murderer inside the apartment after the crime and fled the country, while the brother-in-law was arrested at Sharjah Airport while trying to flee.

On January 16, the victim’s wife Kiran A.M., contacted the police and told them her husband Mohammed had gone missing after she left him to go to work. On returning home, she found a broken door and a big black suitcase in the middle of the hall, but nothing else amiss. She attempted to call her husband on his mobile phone several times, but the calls went unanswered.

She stayed the evening with a friend, returning the next day to try to find out more after her calls remained unanswered. The duo called the police when they realised the suitcase was suspicious, who arrived and discovered the dead body, with bound arms and legs, when they opened the case.

The victim’s wife revealed how she and her husband had received death threats from her brother and ex-husband who were unhappy at the couple’s union. This information led the police to track down the woman’s brother at the airport, attempting to escape.

During the man’s interrogation, he confessed his crime and told of how after the murder, his sister’s ex-husband locked him inside the apartment and told him he would return with the woman. However, when he did not return he called his accomplice to discover he was already at the airport ready to leave the country.

The man then broke down the door and attempted to flee the country likewise, but was arrested before he had the chance.

Based on the confession, the murderer has been referred to Public Prosecution and the police are following procedures to arrest the ex-husband.

Al Gharb police station director Col. Mohammed Abdullah Al Obad said the murder was “one of the most horrible crimes that have ever happened in Sharjah”. He said the motive of the crime, a family dispute, was not an excuse to end someone’s life.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com