Nilofar Khan/ Nelofar Tariq, a police constable, seemed to have faked her own death. Nilofar Akhtar/ Nilofar Khan/ Nelofar Tariq / Mrs Anjali Kumar were some of the names used to refer to this same woman who disappeared and has now been found.

Nilofar was missing on February 28, 2006. A few monslater, a woman’s body was removed from Dal Lake. The badly decomposed body was assumed to belong to Nilofar.

In March 3, 2006, Nilofar’s mother filed a complaint at Srinagar’s Parimpora police station. Nilofar was a key witness in a famous sex scandal case in Kashmir in 2006. Nilofar’s family claimed that she was killed to silence her. Nelofar’s mother said that her daughter was beautiful. She alleged that Nelofar was killed to quell disputes because Nelofar was sexually taken advantage of by her superiors. Nilofar’s disappearance caught the attention of local human rights groups and they joined forces to protest.

Now, in 2008, Nilofar was found alive and living with a new second husband at Nagrota in Jammu. A senior crime branch officer said that Nilofar married a constable named Deepak Kumar, a Kashmiri Pandit. He is currently working as a constable in the Nagrota branch of counter intelligence. Nilofar had changed her name to Anjali.

On Sunday, May 18, 2008, angry locals blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway at Nagrota, 11 km from Jammu/ Srinagar. Jammu & Kashmir Police crime branch team from Srinagar had taken away a couple, both police constables, and their 14 month old child (son) to Srinagar in the middle of the night.

Sub-inspector Sandeep Kour requested to get an autopsy on the dead woman who was found in Dal Lake. He was suspicious because in 2007, there was a series of fake cases that made headlines.

Nilofar’s first husband, Tariq Ahmad, and Nilofar’s mother, Shameem, refused to believe that the body belonged to Nilofar. They asked for positive indentification. On March 10, the body was exhumed and DNA was removed from it.

It required a district court magistrate to order an autopsy. Srinagar’s D.C. judge did it. The buried body was exhumed from Malteng Drugjan. DNA samples were extracted and tested. The results were negative match against Nilofar.

Nilofar met Deepak Kumar at Lal Chowk on Frebruary 28 2006. Then, she went missing and eloped to Jammu with Deepak Kumar. Deepak KUmar introduced Nilofar as Anjali to his family. Deepak Kumar married Anjali. Nilofar and Deep Kumar had met when Nilofar was posted in the Civil Lines area, prior to her Badami Bagh posting. They have a young son now.

Nilofar’s colleagues at Police Lines knew that Nilofar was having an affair with Deepak Kumar. Deepak Kumar is originally from Mattan town in south Kashmir. This information gave the police clues. Deep Kumar’s friends also knew about the double identity of Nilofar/ Anjali.

Nilofar’s family has refused to comment after the truth surfaced. Nilofar’s parents were asked to identify Nilofar positively and they had done so. So, besides the DNA, there was the positive identification from the parents to prove that Nilofar is alive.
Nilofar, has to appear before the Jammu & Kashmir Human Rights Commission. Nilofar would be questioned why she did not come forward and report for duty when she was declared dead.

Abdul Gaffar Malik, senior superintendent of police, crime branch, said that the police have brought Nelofar before a magistrate to take her statement down. He said that the law had no provisions to persecute a person for marrying or remarrying. Nelofar would be free to do as she pleased. Abdul Gaffar Malik said that the police have proven that they were not responsible for her disappearance in 2006.

To be continued…

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 11:27 pm and is filed under India News, News.