Guwahati: Love jihad has taken the life of another Hindu woman, this time in Assam. The victim is none other than a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. Goalpara district secretary of BJP Assam unit Jonali Nath was murdered inside a moving car on June 11 by his alleged lover Hasanur Islam. Hasanur Islam was a leader of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) and later joined the Congress Party and was elected Ward Member.
The shocking incident has jolted the entire state. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Law and Order Prasanta Bhuyan and IGP Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Devraj Upadhya, in a media briefing, said that Hasanur Islam had been arrested and has confessed to the murder in police interrogation. As per the statement of the accused, Hasanur Islam, they had an affair for the last two years. The accused had another affair and wanted to marry the girl with his family’s consent. Hasanur Islam and the deceased Jonali Nath had quarrelled over the issue several times.
On June 11 evening, the accused called her to meet in the Islampur area. They had hated arguments inside Hasanur Islam’s car, police said. After some time, Hasanur hit her several times, and she died inside the vehicle. The murderer drove her body to Salpara on National Highway 17 in the Goalpara district. He threw her body in Salpara at around 8.30 p.m. and fled.
Hasanur Islam switched off his mobile and was absconding from June 11 night. Police picked him up on the June 12 evening, and he confessed to the killing in interrogation, IGP Bhuyan and Upadhya said. Hasanur was produced in the chief judicial magistrate court of Goalpara and sent into police custody for five days. Police sources said that even though Hasanur has confessed to the murder, there are still many investigations left. Post mortem report of the deceased, Jonali Nath, suggests that she was hit with heavy particles on her head. But the accused confessed that he had only punched her in the face. No murder weapon is still recovered even though police have seized the vehicle used by Hasanur.
According to SP Goalpara Rakesh Reddy, several injury marks were on her body. These injury marks suggested that Jonali Nath was savagely assaulted before her death. A forensic team collected blood stains from the car that killed the BJP leader. But the mobile phone and bag of the female BJP leader has not been recovered yet. Hasanur Islam hasn’t given any information about her mobile and bag to the police. Police said that some sensational information might come up during further interrogation of the killer. It is yet not clear why the murderer Hasanur Islam brutally killed his alleged partner, a district-level leader of the ruling party in the state, over a heated argument. Even though Hasanur confessed to the murder, the actual motive behind the murder is not yet clear. Prima facie evidence suggested that it was a planned murder and not done in the heat of the moment. Killer Hasanur drove her body several kilometres and threw it in an isolated place near the national highway.
The deceased, Jonali Nath, was last seen in the Islampur area of the district on June 11 evening. She was having some discussions in a roadside hotel in Islampur before leaving the place. According to eyewitnesses, the deceased BJP leader received several calls before leaving the place. It is still unknown whether the calls were made by accused Hasanur Islam or somebody else. She was last in Islampur at around 6 p.m., and her body was found after 8.30 p.m. where she was in between these two and a half hours as she was not accepting repeated calls from her husband and elder daughter.
Jonali Nath’s husband said that she attended a party meeting in the morning in Goalpara town and returned home at around 2.30 in the afternoon. She again left home for Islampur at 4, and after that, she was not in communication with her family. Her elder daughter sent her a WhatsApp message which was seen after 6 p.m. But all these questions will be answered once her mobile phone is found. But the sensational murder of a female BJP leader by her alleged Muslim partner jolted the state. Deceased Jonali Nath left behind her husband and two daughters; the elder one is studying BSc Nursing younger daughter is a class 3 student.
