Solving Crime | When a passenger turned killer: How Karnataka Police cracked a cabbie’s murder

In the early hours of January 30, 2021, Fakrusab K Nadaf, a police inspector at the Koratagere police station, about 90 km from Bengaluru, had finished bathing and was reading a newspaper at his home when he received a message about a fatal road accident on the Koratagere-Madhugiri Road.

But the case, which initially appeared to be a road accident on a quiet stretch, soon turned out to be a murder.

“Since my days of training, I wake up at 5 am and will be ready to go to work by 6 am (other than on night-duty days). On that day, when I received the message on wireless, I did not wait for my driver and drove my office jeep to the accident spot that was around 7-8 km from my residence,” he recalled.

By 6.15 am, Nadaf had reached the site. “The Mahindra Verito car had partially hit an electrical pole. The driver had died due to bleeding. But upon checking, there were three stab-injury marks on the chest, and it became clear that it was a murder and not an accident,” said Nadaf.

The police immediately cordoned off the area, and Forensic Science Laboratory officials, the dog squad, and the Scene of Crime Operation team visited the spot. While the victim’s identity was yet to be established, the biggest lead the police got was a mobile phone that was found near the driver’s seat.

The police checked the frequent calls list and found that at 10 pm the night before, the victim had called a number saved as Ayisha. The police called the same number, and the person who picked up the call introduced herself as the wife of a cab driver called Nisar Ahmed. The police shared a photo of the victim, and she confirmed that it was her husband.

With the victim identified, the police questioned Ayisha about their family. She told them that they stayed in Anekal and her husband often took passengers from Electronic City to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). However, a day before the incident, he had called to inform them that he had a customer to drop off in Tumakuru.

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A police officer who was part of the team said a special team was sent to Bengaluru. “The incident occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, and police personnel travelled less at that time. But we could not ignore as it was a murder case. We went to Electronic City, where the cabs are usually parked. We met Nisar Ahmed’s friends who told us that he had gone to drop a customer,” the police officer recalled.

According to court documents, Mohammed Asif, a fellow driver and friend of Nisar Ahmed, told the court that he witnessed a person approaching Nisar on the night of January 29, 2021. While some drivers refused to drop the person as he bargained for less than Rs 3,500, Nisar agreed to ferry him for Rs 3,300 and left around 8.30 pm.

CCTV footage

The police immediately collected all CCTV camera footage in the vicinity of the area and found that a man had boarded the vehicle. According to the footage, the cab stopped in KP Agrahara at 9.05 pm; at the NICE Road toll plaza (Electronic City entry) at 10.01 pm; at a stop at 11 pm; then at a hotel near Nelamangala; and the vehicle was heading towards Koratagere by 12.22 am.

The CCTV footage showed that the ‘passenger’ was present in all the CCTV videos and had paid the bill at the hotel using UPI. At the same time, the active mobile location of Nisar Ahmed and the person moved in the same direction. The police found that the number was registered in the name of one Veerendra P, 24, a resident of Anekal on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

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The police then checked the location of the accused to find it was active in Gopanahalli village in Challakere taluk of Chitradurga district. Police constables Venkatesh and Somanatha went to the place and nabbed Veerendra.

On February 4, 2021, the police produced him before a local court and took him into police custody for further questioning. While the police took him to the place of the incident, Veerendra, who by then had confessed to the murder, helped them retrieve the wheel airbag in which he had hidden the bloodstained clothes after the murder at a nearby bush.

What took Nadaf and his team aback was that Veerendra and Nadaf never knew each other. Nadaf said, “Veerendra, who failed Class 12, was working in odd jobs in Bengaluru. He wanted money for his sister’s marriage. Then, he decided to rob a cab driver. He bought a knife and a bag and boarded the cab. He was sitting in the front seat till they had dinner at a hotel, and later, he went to the back seat,” Nadaf said.

Around 1 am, the car was on the Koratagere-Madhugiri Road when Veerendra asked Nadaf to stop the vehicle so that he could relieve himself. After attending to nature’s call, Veerendra returned to the back seat and then grabbed Nisar’s neck from behind and stabbed him three times with the knife he was carrying.

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A police officer said, “After the murder, he tried to start the vehicle but hit an electric pole which was just 30 feet away from the spot. Then, he again shifted the body to the driver’s position to make it look like an accident and changed his clothes before fleeing.”

Nadaf said, “Veerendra had plans to sell the car for about Rs 4 lakh to fund his sister’s marriage. He did not even know that he could not sell the car without a Registration Card.”

The trial

The Koratagere police filed a chargesheet within 90 days naming 33 witnesses and 21 material objects as evidence before the court. The fourth additional district and sessions judge in Madhugiri convicted Veerendra to life imprisonment on August 3 this year. While there was no eyewitness to the murder, the court relied upon the complete chain of circumstances for the conviction.

Judge Sumangala S Basavannour took note of the digital evidence, including CCTV footage retrieved from multiple places, the voluntary statement of Veerendra before the police, call records, and other witnesses who had seen Veerendra with Nisar Ahmed.

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In the judgment, Basavannour said that though the motive for the murder may not be very strong, there was a complete chain of circumstances with reliable evidence to prove the case.

The judgment reads, “The prosecution successfully proved the incident, motive of the accused and involvement of the accused in the case on hand from direct materials, circumstantial materials and from the evidence of experts and from the materials collected from the place of incident… I find no reason to disbelieve the case of prosecution. Absolutely there is no ground to extend benefit of doubt in favour of the accused. This is not a fit case to extend benefit of doubt in favour of the accused in so far as his involvement in the crime is concerned.”

Recalling the case, Nadaf, who is now posted in Tumakuru, said, “In a lot of crimes, often the most unexpected people become victims. What was more tragic is that Nisar’s wife and their two young children were waiting for him to return home when they got the call about his death. The children lost their father, and the woman lost her husband just because of one man’s mistake and greed.”