J&K Police butcher sheep to prove murder theory using an analogy

“In light of this…a live sheep was killed and, after throwing the carcass at the spot, a pack of dogs gathered and started tearing apart the butchered sheep, especially eating its chest meat. This confirmed that the injuries on the deceased and the butchered sheep’s chest were similar,” the chargesheet states.

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According to police, Malik was murdered on January 12, allegedly by 21-year-old Ishaan Majeed. The two used to be in the same school till Class V. Then, about a year before the murder, Majeed created a fake Facebook profile under the name Umaira and got in touch with Malik. The two started talking on the phone and, after Malik insisted, decided to meet near the railway tracks. But when Malik came to know Majeed was actually a boy, the two had a scuffle, during which Malik fell down and was hit on the head, police had said at the time. Majeed allegedly kicked Malik but once he saw he wasn’t moving, he got scared and fled, police had said.

Three Railway Police personnel had also been arrested. Police had alleged that they found the body but instead of informing the police, they threw it away from the tracks so they would not be accused of dereliction of duty. The body was found on January 14, two days after Malik went missing. In the latest chargesheet, police claimed Majeed had killed Malik “intentionally”.

Four doctors had conducted an autopsy and submitted a report, in which they mentioned that Malik’s upper limb was separated from the body, the index finger was amputated and an ear was missing.

The report appears to contradict the police version that Malik sustained injury to the head. Police said in the chargesheet that Majeed “pushed Malik on to the cement beam of the railway tracks and then kicked him and threw stones at him. He then dragged him by pulling his legs and threw him down the tracks and fled from there”. But the autopsy report states that the scalp was “fully covered by black hair and had no evidence of external injury”.

One of the doctors also said, “The presumption that dogs pulled out the upper limb from his body and tore open his chest should be substantiated by bite marks but we found no such thing. The head was intact and there was no external injury. There was a square burn mark on his thigh, too.”

Majeed’s counsel, advocate Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, meanwhile, said the “prosecution case was based on circumstantial evidence” and that “it appears to be concocted, fabricated”. The victim’s family has, in the past, insisted that the murder could not be the work of one person.

Majeed’s father Abdul Majeed Peerzada has claimed his son was arrested on January 14, while police claim he was taken into custody on January 19 — the day police called a press conference to announce they had cracked the case. SSP, Budgam, Fayaz Ahmad said he could not “comment on the dates without the required material in front”.