Apartment residents say security guard is ‘well-mannered, honest’.
The society members of Rizwan apartment in Jogeshwari (West) have come out in full support of a 28-year-old security guard who has been arrested for allegedly murdering a 74-year-old woman from the society.
Mumtaz Abdul Rashid Badshah was found murdered with her throat slit on February 11 inside her flat in D wing of Rizwan apartment on Aksa Masjid road. Mohammad Rafi alias Rafiq Vali Mohammad Chaudhary, who had fled to Kashmir after the incident, was recently arrested in connection with the murder.
The society members claim that Rafiq is innocent and has been wrongly arrested by the police, while the real culprit unknown to them, is still at large. The Oshiwara police in response urged them to come to the police station to clear their doubts but none of them agreed to it. However, the society plans to provide Rafiq legal aid.
At 11 am on Saturday several women and men from the society led by the society’s chairman Asif Sunafra held a press conference in their society’s compound appealing to the media to highlight that Rafiq could not have committed such a heinous crime. The society members neither have any evidence to back their claims nor have they found any loopholes in the police investigation but said they have based their support for Rafiq because of his nature.
“He is an obedient, well-mannered and honest human being. He has been working with us since 2011 and his father since 2009. He has a clean record here and has never been part of any controversy. He never eyed any women in our society and the fact that several women have stepped out of their houses in his support speaks volumes for his decorum. The motive given by the police is rubbish. He had no motive. Nothing was robbed and it seems like the accused had a personal rivalry. What evidence does the police have ” said a society member who did not wish to be named, saying it will attract the police’s ire.
The society members also denied they were going to remove Rafiq from his job as a security guard.
Deputy commissioner of police Satya Narayan had said that likely motive for the crime was that Rafiq had become insecure after being informed his services as security guard would be terminated.
Rafiq allegedly committed the murder to spread a sense of insecurity among residents who had hired a new security agency. A society member further argued that Rafiq’s work was limited to ensure water gets supplied to every household from the water tanks and then of cleaning vehicles in the society.
