On July 6, 2018, street vendor Abdul Hakim Ansari took his ailing wife Meshar Jahan to Simbhaoli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, to meet a local doctor who could “fix” her knees. The duo took a train for their destination but only one of them returned to Delhi.
Ansari, 52, filed a missing person’s complaint, expressing suspicion that his wife might have been a victim of a robbery gone wrong or a contract killing. He even named three of his friends, accusing them of being involved in the murder of his wife.
A day later, police found Jahan’s body near the railway tracks; Ansari identified it as that of his wife and performed the last rites.
Initially, police didn’t have a concrete reason to suspect Ansari. But talking to Jahan’s relatives revealed a peculiar information: Jahan, 40, had an insurance policy in her name, which was supposed to mature to an amount of Rs 50 lakh within three months from the day of her death. In the event of her death, the money was supposed to go to her husband, Ansari.
Police caught hold of Ansari and after sustained interrogation, he recreated the events of the day his wife was last seen alive.
Police learnt that the couple did reach Simbhaoli. However, after reaching there, Ansari told Jahan that the doctor was not available and that they would have to return.
The couple then boarded the Moradabad passenger train to Delhi. As the train reached Ghaziabad and the compartment emptied out, Ansari took Jahan’s dupatta and strangled her in her sleep, said police.
“He then threw away her dupatta and the slippers she was wearing out of the train. He got off the train at a station near East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, carefully avoiding any CCTV camera present at the station,” said an officer probing the case at the time.
Ansari told police that he was fed up with Jahan, his third wife, and her chronic health ailments due to which “she couldn’t cook for him or and carry out other household chores”.
The plan to bump Jahan off was hatched way back in 2015, when Ansari got his wife insured on a monthly premium of Rs 1,900, said police. The policy was supposed to mature in a few months, said police, and thus, to both eliminate her and fetch money out of her death, Ansari hatched the murder plan.
Said the officer quoted above, “What helped us crack the case was a tip-off we received after questioning insurance company officials regarding the terms and conditions of Jahan’s policy, and the woman’s family pointing fingers at Ansari”.
The case is currently pending trial at the Tis Hazari Court and Ansari is in judicial custody.
Police said Jahan and Ansari had been married for six years.
Said an officer, “Ansari and Jahan had been quarrelling since the beginning over petty matters. He was unhappy that she was rude towards his children from his first marriage… He had even contemplated getting a divorce but eventually stumbled upon the idea of getting Jahan insured and killing her to recover the matured amount.”
Ansari lived with all three of his wives at his house in Uttam Nagar.
“He initially tried to feign sadness and pretended to cooperate with the police in finding his wife’s killers. But eventually, when the woman’s relatives told us about the history of quarrel between Ansari and Jahan and regarding the insurance policy, we questioned the insurance company after which we were able to join the dots in the case. Ansari eventually broke down and confessed to the killing,” said another officer privy to the probe at the time.
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