A woman was killed and her decomposed body dumped near a wild animal’s den in Rajasthan’s Rampura hills, police said. Nearly 7,000 km later, police arrested one of the accused in Bihar’s Saharsa district.
The accused, Mohammad Sagar Ali alias Shahbaz Khan, killed the woman, identified as Muskan, with the help of another man and dumped her body in an attempt to destroy evidence, police said.
According to police, the murder took place on the night of June 22, 2026. Muskan had been in contact with Shahbaz since January.
Her family lost contact with her on June 19, after which her mobile phone remained switched off. When her family went to Santhalka looking for her, Shahbaz allegedly refused to provide any information about her.
Around the same time, police informed the family about the recovery of an unidentified woman’s body. The body was later taken to a government hospital, where it was identified as Muskan.
POLICE SCAN 250 CCTV CAMERAS, TRACK 325 LOCATIONS
After the body was found, a special team was formed under the supervision of Bhiwadi Superintendent of Police Brijesh Upadhyay, Additional Superintendent of Police Shreeman Lal Meena and Circle Officer Kailash Chaudhary. The investigation was led by Station House Officer Sachin Sharma.
Police examined around 200-250 CCTV recordings from areas around the crime scene and locations linked to the suspects. The cyber cell also analysed technical data to track their movements.
Investigators identified around 325 possible locations linked to the suspects across nearly 40 districts in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Police teams were sent to several locations and, in some cases, officers stayed undercover among local residents while gathering information, officials said.
As investigators closed in, Shahbaz allegedly realised that he was being tracked and began changing locations. Police continued following his trail across several states before reaching Saharsa in Bihar.
Shahbaz, a resident of Harewa in Saharsa district who had been staying in Jaggu Colony, Santhalka, was arrested there, police said.
WOMAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED WITH STONE
During questioning, police said Shahbaz gave details about the alleged motive and the sequence of events leading to the murder.
According to the police version, Muskan had been facing problems within her family. Police said she had allegedly accused a friend of her mother of having inappropriate intentions towards her, which had led to disputes between Muskan and her mother.
Police said Muskan was later married to her maternal uncle and had subsequently become depressed.
According to police, Muskan was planning to disclose the names of people she believed were responsible for her problems. Shahbaz and his alleged accomplice reportedly came to know about this and called her to the hills on the pretext of meeting her.
Once there, the two allegedly attacked Muskan with a stone and killed her, police said.
Her body was then allegedly dumped near a wild animal’s den so that animals would destroy it and make it harder to establish evidence of the crime.
However, police recovered the body before it was completely destroyed and subsequently identified Muskan.
Shahbaz was produced before a court, which remanded him to police custody. Police are now questioning him to establish the role of the alleged accomplice and verify the circumstances surrounding Muskan’s murder.
– Ends
With inputs from Himanshu Sharma
Published On:
Aug 14, 2026 14:39 IST
