Prime suspect in murder of Afghan national arrested from Panipat

PUNE: The fugitive Afghan national involved in murdering a compatriot in a street brawl at Kondhwa was taken into custody from Panipat in Haryana last week, over a year after the incident.

The prime suspect, Nimatullah Ahmatullah Ahmadi (27), had fled to Goa after murdering Ahmed Jan Najmuddin Nazam, also from Afghanistan .

He then shifted to Satpal in Panipat district and secured admission to an MBA college there.

The Haryana police later arrested Ahmadi for staying without travel documents. The Kondhwa police obtained his custody from Karnal jail in Haryana and brought him to Pune for investigation.

Two Afghan nationals had brutally assaulted Nazam over a street fight between two friends. The incident had occurred outside Latitude Apartment on Mother Teresa Road, off NBM Road, in Kondhwa around 9.30pm on July 25, 2018. Nazam succumbed to stab injuries in a private hospital on August 21.

The police had initially arrested one of the suspects, Mansoor Ahmed , and booked Ahmadi on charges of attempt to murder. After Nazam’s death, the police had invoked the charges of murder against the suspects.

Sub-inspector Santosh Shinde of the Kondhwa police, who has been investigating the case, on Wednesday said, “A chargesheet against Ahmed was filed before a magisterial court and the permission for continuing investigations under Section 173 (8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was obtained. Ahmadi, then a resident of Kondhwa, was on the run after the incident. His whereabouts were not known despite the police making all possible efforts to arrest him. A lookout circular to deter him from leaving India was also issued.”

Shinde said, “The Haryana police had arrested Ahmadi for not possessing travel documents under the Foreigners Act. The Haryana gave information of the action taken against him to the Afghanistan Embassy. The Embassy informed the police there that he was involved in a murder case registered with the Pune police. The Embassy and Haryana police also informed us about his arrest.”

He said, “We obtained a production warrant from the Pune cantonment court and obtained Ahmadi’s custody from Karnal jail on August 27. We brought him to Pune the next day. He will be in police custody remand till September 5.”

“Investigations revealed that Ahmadi had concealed the knife in bushes off NIBM Road after the incident. A police team conducted searches for tracing the murder weapon, but it was not found. We will invoke Section 201 (destroying evidence) of IPC against Ahmadi,” he added.