Shambu Lal Regar, the man who had filmed himself murdering a 50-year-old man, and later put the video on social media, now claims that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Mohammed Afrazul, the victim was not even an acquaintance of Regar. Shambu claimed that the victim was involved in “love jihad” and his action was a war against love jihadists. Afrazul’s relatives denied the claim.
According to Hindustan Times, Afrazul was in fact not Shambu’s target. Shambu was after a person called Ajju Sheikh, another migrant worker from Bengal. Ajju, allegedly, had an affair with a girl whom Shambu considered his sister. The police, however, suspect that Shambu had an affair with the girl.
According to the police, Shambhu had only spoken to Ajju on phone and did not recognise him.
Shambu went to the local market in search of Ajju but when he couldn’t find him, he enquired for his mobile number from another labourer.
Rajendra Singh Rao, police circle officer of Rajsamand said:
“Either the labourer misheard Shambhu, or he thought that since Shambhu needs to get some work done, why not help Afrazul, probably his acquaintance, get some work. He then gave Afrazul’s number to Shambhu.”
On December 6, Shambu called Afrazul to construct a boundary wall for him. At around 10:30 AM he even had tea with Afrazul at a teashop about a kilometre from the spot where Afrazul was killed.
While Afrazul was working, Shambu went back home and got his pickaxe with which he hacked Afrazul to death. Shambu, who was addicted to watching hate videos on his phone, got his nephew with him to record the crime.
Police suspect that his obsession with these hate videos against Muslims was another reason that he randomly targetted Afrazul. He, apparently, wanted to set an example.