Bodies of murdered property dealer's wife, daughters found

Officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had been deputed to solve a 'bleak puzzle', as they exhumed the bodies of five members of a family killed in batches and dumped in Meerut (UP) and Burari in Delhi on Tuesday.

By the time the forensic team reached in Meerut, where three women were killed, all they could find was decomposed remains of property dealer and BSP leader Munawwar Hassan's wife Sonia alias Ishrat, her two daughters aged 18 and 17.

Hassan's sons aged 19 and 22 were found buried inside a 10-foot deep hole near a water tanker in Burari. The team found that his sons had been tortured, while the accused – Sahib Khan alias Bunty, and his entourage of four contract killers were digging their graves under the water tanker.

The murder of six members of the family belonging to Hassan was orchestrated by Bunty. Hassan was found shot dead on Saturday.

Bunty had been vying for several disputed properties, which Hassan had grabbed through intimidation and force. After Bunty was picked up by the police and the details of the grisly crime scene came to the fore, the forensic teams rushed to Meerut. The cops were working under the supervision of the Sub District Magistrate (SDM). "We have recovered the skulls and the skeletal structure of the women is intact. It has been found that they were shot dead," said an official.

They are now collecting crucial DNA evidence. "We want to make a watertight case against the accused. All their bodies will go through rigorous DNA testing.

Hassan's body has been handed over to Sabzi Mandi mortuary for post-mortem," said DCP (North) Jatin Narwal.

While Hassan was languishing in jail, Bunty lured his wife and her two daughters and offered to accompany them to a family function in Saharanpur on April 20 in his SX4 car. When he was returning from the function he took a detour and took them out.

Bunty's contract killer Zulfikar took out his country-made pistol and shot her 17-year-old daughter in the face."Bunty was ruthless, when Ishrat was crying he started to smile and then also shot Ishrat," said a senior cop.

After shooting both the women, Hassan's elder daughter begged the killers to kill her as well after which Zulfikar shot her in the chest.

After killing the women, Bunty decided to eliminate the boys. He asked them to come near his office in Burari on April 21. When they reached the office, they were mercilessly thrashed and their mouth was gagged with a piece of cloth and their body tied with ropes. The boys were then starved over a 30-hour period. "When the boys were beaten and starved, Bunty and his associates were digging their graves. The boys were then strangulated to death and dumped in the pit with salt, to make their bodies rot faster. After applying salt, the killers also used perfume to mask the rotting smell," the official added.