A man is collapsed face down on the side of a busy road, as another bends over. As bystanders shout “Aye” in protest, the man continues to hack at the injured man with a butcher knife. Brandishing his weapon, he then threateningly wards off three men including a policeman who attempt to intervene. The killer then kicks the lifeless body on the ground before continuing to butcher him.
This shocking incident of an auto driver killing a man was caught on camera as scores of bystanders watched on in the busy street of Hyderabad’s old city on Wednesday. The accused Abdul Khaja (30), an autorickshaw driver had gotten into an argument with Shakir Qureshi (35), who runs a mutton shop. Police say that the two men who are residents of Chanchalguda in Hyderabad had gotten into a heated argument over rent for an autorickshaw that Khaja’s relative had rented from Qureshi.
Najeebuddin, the traffic police constable, who had attempted to intervene, alerted the control room and the local police station about the incident.
“The indicent happened around 7: 15 pm. Both of them fought over auto rent, Khaja was drunk at the time. Qureshi runs a mutton shop and was in possession of the knife at the time of the incident. The reason for the murder as per preliminary investigation shows that the deceased had rented an auto to a relative of the accused and they had an argument about the rent money. The accused was drunk and their argument ended in murder,” said Amber Kishore Jha, South Zone DCP, Hyderabad Police. “The accused surrendered to the police,” he added.
Mirchowk police station inspector S Srinivas Goud Khaja said the knife belonged to Qureshi but Khaja overpowered him and used the knife on Qureshi.
After committing the murder Khaja could be seen speaking to media persons “I tried to compromise with him told him…he brought the knife… I am a family man but he insulted my family.”
This is the second such murder in broad daylight to shake the city in two months as in September, a man was hacked to death in public in Hyderabad's Attapur road near Pillar 140 of the PV Narasimha Rao expressway in Cyberabad police limits.
Visuals of the incident at the time showed the victim lying on the ground, as he was attacked with an axe even as vehicles passed by. The assailant, after hacking the victim to death, was seen pumping his hands in the air and striking a pose of victory.
He was later arrested by the police.