UP: Man stabs woman friend, pours acid on her face after failing to repay Rs 11 Lakh

In a shocking turn of events, a longstanding friendship between colleagues took a sinister turn, resulting in a gruesome murder. Pinki, 42, and Zakir, 41, had been colleagues for over ten years, and their bond was once strong. However, it all unraveled when Pinki, in a desperate financial situation, sought repayment of Rs 11 lakh he had loaned Zakir. Pinki patiently waited for Zakir to fulfill his promise of repaying the debt. But as time passed, Zakir continually made excuses to avoid settling the debt. Frustrated by his reluctance, Pinki persisted in her demands. Until on September 8 when Zakir allegedly lured Pinki to an isolated area in Knowledge Park, Greater Noida, under false pretenses. There, he brutally stabbed her in the chest with a dagger and disfigured her face with acid. Pinki, employed as a clerk at Nizamuddin railway station, went missing on September 8, prompting her daughter to report her disappearance to the police the following day. While Ambedkar Nagar police initiated a search for her, the Uttar Pradesh police discovered her disfigured body that very evening, along with some identifying documents, leading them to Pinki’s family. The mystery surrounding Pinki’s murder remained unsolved initially. After thorough technical investigations by both police forces, a significant lead emerged – a phone number closely associated with Pinki. This number appeared in Pinki’s call records and belonged to Zakir, who had gone missing, with his phone turned off. He had taken a week’s leave from work. CCTV footage also captured Zakir and Pinki together at various locations before the murder. The police were on the brink of cracking the case. Within the next 24 hours, a team led by inspectors Kishan Kumar and Dheeraj Mehlawat raided around 60 locations in and around Zakir’s Subhash Vihar neighborhood in northeast Delhi. Eventually, Zakir was apprehended owing to technical evidence and surveillance footage and soon confessed to his crime, police said. Initially, Zakir borrowed money from Pinki, citing financial difficulties. He later claimed to have invested the money in a “committee” that promised substantial returns. Zakir spun tales of lucrative schemes to extract more money from Pinki, who even took out a personal loan to pay Zakir. Zakir seemed confident that he would not only repay her but also secure significant profits. However, as the borrowed sum ballooned to Rs 11 lakhs, Pinki began pressing him to repay. Zakir, using the excuse of the COVID-19 pandemic, delayed repayment, alleging financial hardship. This year, Pinki began actively searching for properties for a new house and insisted that Zakir return her money. Pinki discovered that Zakir had recently sold a house, which pushed her to the brink. She firmly demanded repayment. On September 7, Zakir accompanied her to Noida for an outing, visiting a mall in sector 18. He attempted to persuade her to go to Greater Noida, but she declined, insisting on returning home. The following day, Zakir concocted a story about a lucrative property deal in Knowledge Park, successfully convincing Pinki to accompany him, unknowingly walking into a deadly trap. Once he had committed the murder, Zakir disposed of the murder weapon and acid bottle in sector 148 in Noida. When Pinki failed to return home that night, her daughter promptly reported her mother’s disappearance to the police. In her complaint, she stated that her brother had dropped their mother at her office at Nizamuddin station on September 8, and she had gone missing after office hours.