ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: Police personnel investigating the murder of former Miss Singapore have arrested the lone accomplice of the alleged murderer from Murree on Tuesday, police said.

The accomplice is a naib qasid in the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra).

The former Miss Singapore, Fahmina Chaudhry, had gone missing from Islamabad on October 10. Later, her mother received a call in which Rs20 million were demanded as ransom for her release. However, her mother approached the police instead and got a kidnapping for ransom case registered on October 12.

During the subsequent investigation, the police succeeded in arresting a man who confessed to the killing. The police also recovered the victim’s body.

A police official said on Tuesday that investigators raided a house in Murree and succeeded in arresting the accomplice of the alleged killer. They also recovered various belongings of the victim, including gold ornaments, her purse and mobile.

During interrogation, the accomplice denied that he had murdered the victim, the police official said.

He also quoted the accomplice as saying that on October 10, the alleged murderer had picked him (the accomplice) from Erra, stating that he needed some help in shifting luggage in a mini truck.

According to the Erra naib qasid, the murderer had picked up Ms Chaudhry from a hotel and they then went to a house in Banigala.

“He (the killer) and the woman went inside the house while I remained in the car,” the accomplice told the police, adding, “after some time he (murderer) came out and asked me to bring the car inside the house.”

Later when the accomplice entered the house, he saw the lifeless body of the woman. The murderer then asked the naib qasid to help him dispose of the body.

“We wrapped up the body in a blanket and put it in the trunk of the vehicle before leaving for Korang Nullah where they dumped it,” the accomplice told investigators. However, the murderer, who was arrested on October 14, had a different story to tell.

He told the police that his mother, a senior official of the Information Department, was working as press attaché in the Pakistani embassy in Singapore a few years ago. He had gone to visit her when he met Ms Chaudhry.

During the meeting, he offered his services to establish an advertisement agency for her in Pakistan.

The victim was a chartered accountant and had served in a bank in Singapore. Later, she joined the fashion industry and won the title of Miss Singapore thrice. She had also established an advertising agency and had acted as a model in various advertisements.

In July this year, the victim moved to Karachi, her parent’s native town, from Singapore.

According to the alleged murderer, Ms Chaudhry had then approached him for establishing the agency, and in early October, he invited her to Islamabad. He also arranged a room for her in Margalla Hotel on the pretext of establishing the agency.

After her arrival in Islamabad, she handed the accused gold ornaments worth Rs5 million to help him start the agency, the murderer told the police.

Later, she asked him to return the gold ornaments as he had not shown any progress.

On October 10, the accused called the victim and told her that he had succeeded in obtaining a contract to create an advertisement for a soft drink company. In this regard, a meeting was fixed with the company’s management, and he told the victim that he was coming to pick her for the meeting.

“I arrived at the hotel along with [the accomplice] to pick her and later took her to Banigala,” the murderer told investigators, adding that the accomplice was seated in the rear and had strangled the model. Later her body was wrapped up in a blanket and dumped in the nullah, he told investigators.

The officer said the victim’s mother was a cancer patient and had arrived in Islamabad after her daughter disappeared. She had also received SMS and calls demanding ransom from her. The number was then traced by the police while led to the arrest of the killers, he added.