The J&K Police on Tuesday arrested the domestic who is suspected of being the main perpetrator in the killing of DG Prisons Hemant Kumar Lohia.
A senior police officer said that the accused, Yasir Ahmad, 23, a resident of Halla village of Ramban, was hiding in the fields in Kana Chak locality of Jammu from where he was arrested in a nocturnal operation by security forces.
“In a major manhunt by J&K police throughout the night, the accused involved in the murder case of Hemant Lohia has been apprehended. The interrogation of the accused has started,” said ADGP Jammu Zone, Mukesh Singh.
Lohia was killed at his residence in the outskirts of Jammu on Monday night. Terming the incident as "extremely unfortunate”, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said there were burn injuries on Lohia’s body and his throat was slit.
Yasir had tried to set fire to the body of Lohia after suffocating him to death and attacking him with a broken bottle, he said. ADG Singh inspected the crime scene at Udaiwala on the outskirts of Jammu where said the 1992-batch IPS officer was found dead.
He said that during examination of the crime scene, it appears that Lohia was applying some oil on his foot which showed swelling when he was attacked.
When Yasir tried to set the body ablaze, the guards present at the residence of the officer detected the fire inside his room and they were forced to kick open the door which was locked from inside
“Preliminary examination of the scene of crime points towards murder. J and K Police family expresses grief and deep sorrow over the death of the senior officer,” Singh added.
Following the murder, multiple raids were conducted by special teams at different places of Jammu to nab the domestic help who was seen in the CCTV footage at the residence running away after killing Lohia.
The suspect was working in this house for nearly six months. According to reports, probe has pointed out that Yasir is “quite aggressive” when he was questioned and “was also under depression”.
ADGP Singh said no terror link has come to the fore as per the initial investigation. “A thorough probe is on to rule out any possibility. The weapon of offence has been seized besides some documentary evidence reflecting his (domestic help's) mental state,” he said.