Lucknow: Asma Javed, who had grabbed headlines in 2011 as the first woman in the history of the Aligarh Muslim University to contest for the post of president in the Students' Union for 2010-2011 session, was found dead in her apartment in Aligarh's Shamshad Market area by the police on Wednesday.
Her brother Salman Javed said he filed a missing complaint with the Civil Lines police station as her mobile phone was switched off. “Mother had spoken to her last Thursday and since Saturday her mobile phone was switched off. We asked people in Aligarh to check her apartment and they said that it was locked from outside,” he said.
“On Monday morning, I started from Balrampur at 8 am and reached Aligarh at around 12:30 am, at night. On Wednesday, our relatives in Aligarh told us that the neighbours are telling them about a (foul) smell (from the house). We went there and the police broke the locks and saw her dead body,” Javed said.
“We broke open the doors at 10 am on Wednesday; she had been strangled to death,” said Civil Lines inspector Suryakant Dwivedi. A PRO of Aligarh SP J Ravinder Goud said, “Asma had been killed two-three days before her body was found. She had injury marks on her neck and head. According to prima facie reports, she was murdered and whoever murdered her locked the apartment from outside. We are investigating the case and are questioning two persons, with whom she was said to be in a relationship.”
Asma was also reportedly under depression. Her brother Salman said that she was enrolled in a Basic Training Certificate (BTC) course in Hathras. About two years ago, she had completed her PhD from AMU. In the academic year 2010-11, she became the first woman in the history of the university to contest for the post of president in the Student’s Union, eventually losing out to Abu Affan Farooqui.
In 2006, as a post graduate student in Hindi Department, she had also filed a complaint of sexual harassment against a teacher in the Sanskrit Department and was also allegedly shot at immediately after she had lodged the complaint and had recieved threat calls.
Later, around 200 students had sat on a protest outside the Vice Chancellor’s residence in her support.
