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He left after a fight: Mother of tailor accused of killing Delhi designer

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByAnvit Srivastava
Nov 16, 2018 08:43 AM IST

Around 11 am, a neighbour came to our house and said Anwar had been arrested, Anjum Begum, the mother of accused, said.

Anjum Begum, 55, said she woke up on Thursday to find the news of her son’s arrest flashing on TV news channels. She said she had last seen her estranged son Rahul Anwar three weeks ago, when he paid an “unusual” visit to their house in Rangpuri Pahadi, a slum located not more than a kilometre from the bungalow where Anwar allegedly murdered his 53-year-old employer Mala Lakhani and her domestic help Bahadur.

Standing outside her one-room house made of un-plastered bare bricks and covered in sheets of plastic, Anjum said, “He left the house around four years ago after regular fights with his father. His father objected to his addictions to liquor and gambling. He regularly stayed at his friends’ houses here and there and visited us only once in a while. He barely stayed in touch.”

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Around 11 am, a neighbour came to our house and said Anwar had been arrested, Anjum said. Anwar’s family, hailing from Munger in Bihar, have been living in the area for the past 20 years.

“We switched on the TV and got the confirmation about his arrest,” said Mohammad Anwar, Anwar’s father, who too, was a tailor until an ankle injury in 2014 rendered him bed-ridden.

Anwar is second among four brothers and two sisters. His elder brother works as a tailor while the one younger to him works as a gym instructor, his mother said.

Anwar’s father recalled how Anwar had assaulted him about a year ago when he scolded Anwar for consuming liquor and being in the company of local gamblers. “I threw him out the house. He didn’t take care of his ageing parents and family. He also did not contribute to the family’s income. He had got the job through someone known to the madam. But I don’t know much about his work as he never visited home when I was there. Maybe he earned about Rs 1,500-2,000. We even tried to get him married but he did not agree,” he added.

Anjum said she refuses to believe her son could be a murderer. Police said that Rahul also has a case of sexually assaulting a minor, but family members claimed that the sexual assault charges were “falsely” levelled against him by a neighbour. “In 2017, one of our neighbours had a fight with my daughter. My son had intervened and during the argument, a neighbour’s minor daughter was also there. She had then lodged a complaint about being manhandled and assaulted,” she said.

Less than 10 metres away from their house lives the family of Mohammad Rehmat, also accused in the twin murders. Rehmat’s mother, Mehroon Khatoon, a homemaker, and father Mohammad Salauddin, a tailor, said that hours before the alleged murders, their son had dinner at their house as usual.

“We had dinner together. After that we went on to sleep and he left the house. We asked him where is he was going, but he did not reply and said he would be back soon. It was only on the TV on Thursday morning that we heard about him,” said Salauddin.

Rehmat’s family hails from Madhepur in Bihar. His father said that Rehmat dropped out of school in Class 7 and had started working as a house painter. “My son did odd jobs as a labourer and at times visited that woman’s (Lakhani) house because he knew tailoring and helped Anwar. I have three sons and a daughter. Rehmat is the eldest.”

The third accused, Wasim’s lives in a same area. Neighbours said Wasim, too, was a tailor and often helped Anwar stitch clothes for Lakhani. Police said Wasim works as a tailor for another Vasant Kunj resident. His house was locked on Thursday.

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