JOIN USA man from Pamuru in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh was arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing his two daughters.
Confessing to the crime, Nazeer Khan told the police that he killed Shakirin and Shajeeda to save the dowry to be paid for their marriage.
Nazeer had four children with Saleema, two sons and two daughters. However, he had always maintained that the daughters were a burden and treated them poorly, family sources said.
Back in 1998, Nazeer took Shakirin, then eight years old, away from home, on the pretext of dropping minor at her grandparents house at Chinnapavani village.
Instead, he took Shakirin to Ulavapadu, strangled her and disposed the body in Manneru lake, police said.
On returning home, Nazeer told Saleema that he had admitted their daughter to a madrassa in Chennai and she could not return before completing her education, going by the strict rules of the madrassa.
Nazeer also confessed to killing her second daughter Shajeeda. On February 25, 2011, Nazeer, accompanied by his brother Hussain, took Shajeeda, then 16 years old, to Ulavapadu. He administered her sleeping pills and put her on a railway track between Ulavapadu and Singarayakonda. Nazeer and Hussain waited till a train run her over before returning home.
However, it was difficult to convince Saleema this time. When Nazeer allegedly threatened her and the two sons with dire consequences for being persistently inquisitive about Shajeeda’s whereabouts, Saleema smelt foul and lodged a complaint with the Pamuru police on March 25.
“Nazeer confessed to his crimes only after we confronted him with the photo of a body that the railway police have recovered and later cremated as an unclaimed body with Shajida’s SSC photograph. He told us that he saved Rs 10 lakh by getting rid of his two daughters,” Ashok Kumar, DSP Kandukur said.