Delhi Fashion Designer Was Killed by the Man She Helped Get Out of Jail

Agencies
November 17, 2018

New Delhi, Nov 17: Fashion Designer Mala Lakhani wound up a long conversation with her sister, saying she would call back after watching "Bigg Boss" but that was never to be. About an hour later, she was killed, allegedly by her own tailor who she had helped get out of jail, her sister Aarti Sharma said on Friday.

It was 'Meenu', as Mala was known in her family, who helped get Rahul out of jail when he was arrested for molestation, Aarti murmured, almost as if talking to herself.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the murder — Mala's master tailor Rahul Anwar (24), his cousin Rahmat (24) and his friend Wasim (25).

Rahul was arrested in 2017 for allegedly molesting a minor girl in Rangpuri Pahari area, police said.

"She would always say that Anwar is like my 'bachcha'," Aarti said.

Aarti was inconsolable, standing outside the Safdarjung Hospital mortuary to claim the body of her 53-year-old sister, who was found brutally stabbed to death along with her domestic help Bahadur in her bungalow in upscale Vasant Kunj Enclave in the early hours of Thursday.

"I had spoken to her at around 8.15 pm (on Wednesday). I spoke to her again and we ended up talking till 9.50 pm. She wanted to speak to my daughter but later said she will call us after 'Bigg Boss' gets over. But she never called back," Aarti said.

It is hard to believe that Rahul stabbed her so brutally and did not even spare her face, Aarti said, standing outside the hospital with her husband Rahul Sharma, the first person to see the bodies with multiple stab injuries in the workshop of the sprawling home.

The bodies of Mala, who ran a boutique called Tulsi Creations in Green Park, and 50-year-old Bahadur, a Nepalese national, were found with at least 18 stab injuries each.

After the killings, allegedly following a long-standing dispute over unpaid dues, the accused looted jewellery worth lakhs of rupees and ransacked the house, police said, estimating that the incident took place between 10 pm and 11.30 pm on Wednesday.

Around 2.45 am on Thursday, the three men went to the police station to confess to the crime.

"They had even inflicted stab injuries on her face and it was hard to recognise her. She was very conscious about her appearance but look what they did to her... Bahadur's intestines were visible. The workshop where the murders took place had blood splattered all over the floor," Rahul Sharma said.

Mala had even bought Rahul a motorcycle so he could commute to work.

Aarti also ran a boutique. About a year ago, Rahul visited her boutique to ask for work and did not inform her that he worked with her sister.

"I only learnt about it recently when one of my employees told me. I had never met Anwar in person before," she said.

She said she was aware of the monetary dispute between them and had discussed it in detail with Mala.

"Anwar wanted extra money for every cloth he stitched. They wanted some Rs 50 extra per piece for stitching. Since it was a meagre amount, we would have sorted it. We had never thought they would hatch a conspiracy to kill her over it. In fact, it was Rahul who told police about Aarti and her boutique. That's how police contacted me to inform me about the incident," she added.

The sisters had planned to meet on Sunday but an unexpected visit from a relative meant that they could not.

 "Meenu's winter clothes had been kept in a cupboard in the storeroom where Bahadur used to sleep. The storeroom was next to the workshop where the incident happened.

"She was opening those cupboards on Wednesday to take out her things. Rahul must have thought she had kept cash in those cupboards, which is why they ransacked that room after killing Meenu and Bahadur," Aarti said.

Bahadur would always tell Mala that "we will die together". The words of Bahadur now almost seem prophetic,” Aarti said.

Police informed the family that the three accused allegedly searched Bahadur's room for money and were expecting to get Rs 30 lakh-40 lakh but did not find any cash.

"Bahadur would always joke that he will die along with Mala since he has been with us since our childhood. It's unfortunate that they both were killed so brutally," the sister added.

Bahadur, a Nepalese national, had been with them for the last 45 years and was “like a brother” to them.

"He was an integral part of our family. He would be angry and instruct us like a brother," Aarti said.

Aarti's husband recalled Bahadur as a very emotional person and remembered how he would call them by their first name.

"He would take care of the house and of every one of us. We trusted him. He would hardly keep a tab on his salary it was usually deposited in his bank account," Sharma said.

Recalling Mala, Sharma said she wanted to get out of her monotonous life.

"She wanted to enjoy her life. She had made enough money and now wanted to travel the world. She had become healthier and took lot of care about her skin and looks," Sharma said.

The family would caution Lakhani against keeping so many people in her house since she lived alone but she would always say, "my home is my mandir".

"I would speak to Meenu at least four times in a day and we met once a week," an inconsolable Aarti said.

Mala was planning to leave designing and wanted to retire and pursue other interest, she said.

"Mala was planning to learn pot,tery and for that she was planning to buy a villa in Goa. She and my elder daughter were planning to shift to Goa. My sister and daughter were like buddies. They were very close to each other", Aarti said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 12,2020

New Delhi, Feb 12: Unidentified people opened fire at the convoy of the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party legislator Naresh Yadav in Southwest Delhi when he and his supporters were returning home after visiting a temple after his victory, killing a party volunteer, police and a senior AAP leader said.

The firing incident happened in Kishangarh village late Tuesday night.

Police said they have detained a person for questioning and the incident appears to be a case of personal enmity. Sources said seven rounds were fired at the MLA's convoy.

Another person injured in the incident has been admitted to a hospital.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh identified the dead party volunteer as Ashok Mann.

“Convoy of MLA Naresh Yadav attacked in Mehrauli, Ashok Mann killed. Naresh Yadav was returning home after visiting a temple,” Singh said in a tweet in Hindi.

“At least one volunteer has passed away due to bullet wounds. Another is injured,” AAP tweeted.

Ankit Lal, AAP's social media in-charge, added that miscreants in another car opened fire on the MLA's convoy near Fortis Hospital.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 2,2020

London/Milan, Jun 2: World Health Organization experts and a range of other scientists said on Monday there was no evidence to support an assertion by a high profile Italian doctor that the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic has been losing potency.

Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy's San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy's COVID-19 epidemic, on Sunday told state television that the new coronavirus "clinically no longer exists".

But WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, as well as several other experts on viruses and infectious diseases, said Zangrillo's comments were not supported by scientific evidence.

There is no data to show the new coronavirus is changing significantly, either in its form of transmission or in the severity of the disease it causes, they said.

"In terms of transmissibility, that has not changed, in terms of severity, that has not changed," Van Kerkhove told reporters.

It is not unusual for viruses to mutate and adapt as they spread, and the debate on Monday highlights how scientists are monitoring and tracking the new virus. The COVID-19 pandemic has so far killed more than 370,000 people and infected more than 6 million.

Martin Hibberd, a professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said major studies looking at genetic changes in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 did not support the idea that it was becoming less potent, or weakening in any way.

"With data from more than 35,000 whole virus genomes, there is currently no evidence that there is any significant difference relating to severity," he said in an emailed comment.

Zangrillo, well known in Italy as the personal doctor of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said his comments were backed up by a study conducted by a fellow scientist, Massimo Clementi, which Zangrillo said would be published next week.

Zangrillo told Reuters: "We have never said that the virus has changed, we said that the interaction between the virus and the host has definitely changed."

He said this could be due either to different characteristics of the virus, which he said they had not yet identified, or different characteristics in those infected.

The study by Clementi, who is director of the microbiology and virology laboratory of San Raffaele, compared virus samples from COVID-19 patients at the Milan-based hospital in March with samples from patients with the disease in May.

"The result was unambiguous: an extremely significant difference between the viral load of patients admitted in March compared to" those admitted last month, Zangrillo said.

Oscar MacLean, an expert at the University of Glasgow's Centre for Virus Research, said suggestions that the virus was weakening were "not supported by anything in the scientific literature and also seem fairly implausible on genetic grounds."

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 6,2020

Dubai/Washington, Jan 6: Tens of thousands of Iranians thronged the streets of Tehran on Monday for the funeral of Quds Force commander Qassim Suleimani who was killed in a US air strike last week and his daughter said his death would bring a "dark day" for the United States.

"Crazy Trump, don't think that everything is over with my father's martyrdom," Zeinab Suleimani said in her address broadcast on state television after US President Donald Trump ordered Friday's strike that killed the top Iranian general.

Iran has promised to avenge the killing of Qassim Suleimani, the architect of Iran's drive to extend its influence across the region and a national hero among many Iranians, even many of those who did not consider themselves devoted supporters of the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers.

The scale of the crowds in Tehran shown on television mirrored the masses that gathered in 1989 for the funeral of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In response to Iran's warnings, Trump has threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites, including cultural targets, if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets, deepening a crisis that has heightened fears of a major Middle East conflagration.

The coffins of the Iranian general and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also killed in Friday's attack on Baghdad airport, were passed across the heads of mourners massed in central Tehran, many of them chanting "Death to America".

One of the Islamic Republic's major regional goals, namely to drive US forces out of neighbouring Iraq, came a step closer on Sunday when the Iraqi parliament backed a recommendation by the prime minister for all foreign troops to be ordered out.

"Despite the internal and external difficulties that we might face, it remains best for Iraq on principle and practically," said Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned in November amid anti-government protests.

Iraq's rival Shi'ite leaders, including ones opposed to Iranian influence, have united since Friday's attack in calling for the expulsion of US troops.

Esmail Qaani, the new head of the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards' unit in charge of activities abroad, said Iran would continue Suleimani's path and said "the only compensation for us would be to remove America from the region."

ALLIES AT FUNERAL

Prayers at Suleimani's funeral in Tehran, which will later move to his southern home city of Kerman, were led by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Suleimani was widely seen as the second most powerful figure in Iran behind Khamenei.

The funeral was attended by some of Iran's allies in the region, including Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Palestinian group Hamas who said: "I declare that the martyred commander Suleimani is a martyr of Jerusalem."

Adding to tensions, Iran said it was taking another step back from commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers, a pact from which the United States withdrew in 2018.

Washington has since imposed tough sanctions on Iran, describing its policy as "maximum pressure" and saying it wanted to drive down Iranian oil exports - the main source of government revenues - to zero.

Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Washington from Florida on Sunday, Trump stood by his remarks to include cultural sites on his list of potential targets, despite drawing criticism from US politicians.

"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," Trump said.

Democratic critics of the Republican president have said Trump was reckless in authorizing the strike, and some said his comments about targeting cultural sites amounted to threats to commit war crimes. Many asked why Soleimani, long seen as a threat by US authorities, had to be killed now.

Republicans in the US Congress have generally backed Trump's move.

Trump also threatened sanctions against Iraq and said that if US troops were required to leave the country, Iraq's government would have to pay Washington for the cost of a "very extraordinarily expensive" air base there.

He said if Iraq asked US forces to leave on an unfriendly basis, "we will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame."

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.