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Old phone helps Hyderabad police identify skeleton of man who died in 2015
Hyderabad: In what could pass off as a scene straight out of a television crime thriller, Hyderabad police on Monday solved the mystery around a partially retrieved skeleton using an old mobile phone found lying 'dead' near the remains.
The 84 missed calls from friends and family on the phone, once activated, helped cops piece the puzzle together and establish that the remains were of 55-year-old Ameer Khan who went missing in 2015.
The hair-raising adventure unfolded at an abandoned house in the Nampally market area where Ameer lived alone. He was the third of Muneer Khan's 10 children who died in 2013.
While his youngest son, Shadab, inherited the house and several shops in the same building it was Ameer — unmarried and unemployed — who lived there by himself.
In May 2015, he disappeared from public view when he stopped leaving the house and locked the doors from inside.
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'It appears there wasn't much interaction between him and other family members,' said B Kishan Kumar, ACP, Asif Nagar, intrigued by how the house had locks on the outside as well. 'Shadab collected rent from the shops in the building, but he or any other family member never attempted to open the house. No one reported to the police about the missing family member either.'
His remains were recovered only on Monday when local boys playing cricket jumped over the compound wall to retrieve a lost ball. 'One of them entered the abandoned, overgrown house, and was hit by an overpowering stench emanating from the kitchen area. The kid then found the skeletal remains, recorded a video of it and shared it on WhatsApp with other friends,' said T Purushotham Rao, inspector, Habeeb Nagar
At around 12:30 pm, police were alerted by locals about the remains.
Chandra Mohan, DCP, south west zone reached the scene and summoned the forensic team. Cops found that the lower half of the remains, covered in mud on the kitchen floor, had shorts on them. Shadab told the informed police that the victim could be his elder brother, Ameer Khan.
Initially, police were uncertain about the identity. But then they found a cell phone near the kitchen.
'It was an old phone and the battery was dead. We contacted a local phone shop and got a charger. To our surprise, the phone's battery turned on, and we saw 84 missed calls in May 2015 from Ameer Khan's acquaintances and family members. The victim's identity was confirmed,' the ACP said, adding, 'We suspect he might have died of ill health. A post-mortem examination is scheduled for Tuesday.'
