Shocking: Woman seduces, blindfolds ex-boyfriend before murdering him

NOIDA: Two friends, Rahim and Israfil , fell for the same woman who sat in an opposite berth during a train journey.Rahim became blind in love, so much that a phone call from her brought him all the way to Delhi from Katihar (Bihar) last week to execute a murder plot. Israfil let himself be blindfolded in lust, seduced by a call from the same woman for a sexual encounter during which she slit his throat. At the heart of this triangle of love, lust, betrayal and revenge is Saira , a 22-year-old woman whose charm had left both Rahim and Israfil, who had themselves just stepped into their 20s, smitten on a Delhi-Katihar train four years ago. Both got off before Katihar, their home town, to escort her to Muzaffarpur , her home town.Rahim and Israfil returned home but began competing for her attention. She gravitated towards Israfil. The two started meeting. She worked in Dwarka and he in Noida, two Delhi suburbs easily bridged by the Blue Line. What unfolded was far from a perfect love story.Israfil married another woman two years ago. And Rahim returned to Saira’s life, this time as her boyfriend. Saira and Israfil kept meeting secretly, though. But when, finally, she started trying to distance herself from him, the affair turned murky.After her arrest in Dwarka on Friday, Saira told police Israfil had started blackmailing her to keep her in a sexual relationship with him. It was his alleged threats to reveal their encounters to Rahim that drove her into blind rage. On August 31, Saira called Rahim. He boarded the North East Express from Katihar to Anand Vihar and met her at Green Park Metro station on September 2. They finalised their plan.Rahim asked Saira to buy a knife with a serrated blade. She called Israfil, who was an auto driver, and asked him to meet her at Noida City Centre Metro station the same night. Israfil did as he was told. They met a little after 8pm. Saira boarded the auto. They headed towards Noida Expressway. Rahim followed in a hired auto. Police said an unsuspecting Israfil stopped the auto in a dark, desolate stretch of a service lane near the Advant Business Park when she asked him to, let her pull him towards shrubs on the roadside and blindfold him with her dupatta. Saira then pulled out the knife hidden in her clothes and slit his throat.Rahim, in the meantime, had got off his auto some distance away and walked to the spot. He allegedly stabbed Israfil several times and smashed his head with a brick. They made their getaway in Israfil’s auto. Saira returned to Dwarka. Rahim took a plane to Patna. Israfil’s body was found the next day after his wife alerted police. The blindfold led them to believe a woman was involved. Israfil’s purse was found at the spot. Police found the knife as well. A probe started. Mobile location history showed Israfil’s and two other phones at exactly the same spots on the night of September 2.Through surveillance, police zeroed in on Rahim, Expressway police station SHO Hansraj Badoriya said on Sunday. A Noida police team reached Katihar on September 6. After a two-day recce, Rahim was arrested and brought to Noida by train on Saturday. Another police team reached Dwarka and arrested Saira, who worked in houses there as adomestic help. Noida SSP Ajay Pal Sharma said a complaint was filed on September 3 by Israfil’s wife, who had later named Saira as a suspect. Police said they waited to gather all information and tie up loose ends before making the arrests.