QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED

Nabeel found dead in Kolar after going missing from Mahadevpura police stationIs being an ‘outsider’ in Bengaluru and coming here in search of a job while not knowing the local language a sin deserving death as a penalty?Let this question ring in your mind because that is exactly what seems to have happened to 24-year-old Nabeel Naful, a native of Kollam in Kerala who had completed electrical engineering and worked in Dubai for a year before arriving in Bengaluru on March 23 looking for a job. Nabeel, who went missing from Mahadevpura police station on March 25, was mysteriously found dead in Malur taluk in Kolar district on Tuesday afternoon. He was earlier found by the locals with grievous injuries all over his body by the roadside in Malur.Bangalore Mirror had reported about Nabeel going missing on the front page of the March 28 edition in an article titledThere lies the mystery. According to Mahadevpura police, an autorickshaw driver had left Nabeel at the police station as he was unable to understand what Nabeel was trying to say while giving him directions. Nabeel could speak English, Hindi and his mother tongue Malayalam, but not Kannada. And there appears to have been an argument between the driver and Nabeel after which he was left at the police station.On March 26 morning, lower rung police officials at Mahadevpura police station called up Nabeel’s parents – who were in Dubai -- using Nabeel’s cellphone and asking them come to Bengaluru to pick up his belongings. They informed his parents that he had left his belongings behind and disappeared.Intriguingly, senior police officials, including the police inspector of the station, had absolutely no clue about Nabeel’s disappearance even when the parents arrived at Mahadevpura police station from Dubai to file a missing person report for their son.The senior police officials learnt about the incident only after Bangalore Mirror brought the incident to their notice much later that evening.So, why didn’t the Mahadevpura police inform their superiors about someone having gone missing from their police station, that too after leaving all his belongings?No one knows what happened to Nabeel thereafter until he was found dead, but Mahadevpura police – citing locals in Kolar – said Nabeel was found on March 30 dragging himself by his hands by the roadside and the locals took him to the Kolar Government hospital. The local police in Kolar suspect Nabeel may have been run over by a vehicle as he was without his shirt or vest but only his pants and with injuries on his head, shoulders and other parts of his body.Accordingly, the Malur police have registered a case of ‘hit and run’ and are investigating.But what happened to his clothes? A speeding vehicle does not hit a person and run away with the victim’s clothes, does it?Nabeel died on April 5 after failing to respond to the treatment at the hospital.Mahadevpura police who had launched an investigation into Nabeel’s disappearance learnt about Nabeel’s death on Tuesday afternoon.The local police and doctors in Kolar said Nabeel had been starving for over three days when he was brought to the hospital on March 30.“I don’t think it is an accident, “says Nabeel’s father Nahas Pasha. “I will go to any extent, including the forensic experts and higher authorities, to find out the truth. My son had around Rs 10,000 in cash when he came to the city. If he had even spent Rs 2,000, the rest should have been with him. But his wallet was at the police station which has been given to us empty. I don’t think he had Rs 6,000 as told by the police when he went to have breakfast on the day he went missing. If he had the money why would he be starving?”Here’s more: Nabeel had nothing on his person and did not know the language. But does that mean there was no one who could speak or understand even a sprinkling of Hindi or English, the languages that Nabeel could speak? And what was he doing in faraway Malur after going missing from Mahadevpura police station on March 25?Now, all that the police are left to rely on is the post mortem examination results to understand the real cause of Nabeel’s death.But the mystery does not end there. The post mortem would only reveal what medical condition caused Nabeel’s death, not the circumstances (or even people!) that led him to his death.There would be questions and more questions – questions whose answers would only bring more pain to Nabeel’s grieving parents.“The police at least could have given him his wallet which had his ID proof. If the people who found him by the roadside could have at least alerted us in some way, Nabeel may have been alive,” says a grieving Pasha.Pasha and his wife have been in the city since March 26. On Tuesday, the parents rushed to Kolar upon being informed that Nabeel had died there. They will claim Nabeel’s body after the post mortem examination on Wednesday.“We have lost our son!” are the only words that repeatedly escape their lips. And no answers are going to take away that grief over their dead son.The police say Nabeel was looking abnormal, but he was well-dressed and educated. They should have immediately sought the contact number of his parents or friends and informed them that he was at the police station. Why didn’t they do so?Police say Nabeel was communicating only in Hindi and Malayalam and that they brought both language translators. Wasn’t there a single person who knew Hindi or English?When they were aware Nabeel appeared lost and that he was looking depressed (according to them) they did not make arrangements for him to have breakfast at the station, and instead sent him out alone to a restaurant. Why?When there was no complaint against Nabeel nor had he committed any wrong, why was he kept back at the police station?Why were his valuables kept at the station? Did the police want him to return to the police station for some purpose?What happened to the money in Nabeel’s wallet? What – or who – killed Nabeel Naful?