Padroo didn’t stop there, though. He approached Deka’s wife, Tasleema, and offered to help her find her missing husband. He accompanied her to police stations in Srinagar where he would keep her waiting outside while he pretended to seek information about Deka. He even demanded money from her, saying he had to bribe the police for leads. Just days before the expose, Tasleema had given him Rs 500.

Padroo’s next victim was another neighbour, Ali Mohammad, a government employee. On March 8 last year, Padroo took him from his village in Kokernag, ostensibly to meet a minister in Srinagar. Instead, Padroo took him to the Ganderbal Police, who drove him to Hari Gunwan Kangan. He was killed in an encounter with the 24 RR and called a Pakistani militant. When Mohammad’s family asked Padroo about his whereabouts, he feigned ignorance. Again, he expressed sympathy with the family and joined in the search. Padroo even made Mohammad’s wife sell her paddy field to fund the search. He once took her to Varanasi, claiming he had got a clue about his whereabouts.

After Mohammad, Padroo lured another neighbour, Ghulam Nabi Wani, who sold old clothes in Srinagar’s Lalchowk. Wani too was killed in a fake encounter, again as a Pakistani militant.

Padroo’s activities were exposed with the disappearance of carpenter Abdul Rehman, who shared Padroo’s family name, in December last year. Padroo had followed the script, but the carpenter’s mobile phone—which was taken by another policeman after his killing —helped the police expose the network.

... contd.