The father of Afroz Khan, a young man who was last heard from on November 27, does not believe that the body found by police on Monday night was his son.
Auyub Khan told this newspaper that he last saw his son when they travelled from Nadi last Wednesday with 24 other individuals, to pick up unregistered vehicles for their company from the Suva Port.
While the rest of the drivers returned to Nadi, Afroz went to meet an ‘Edward Nand’ at the Mobil Service Station in Sawani to inspect a vehicle that he was selling on Facebook marketplace.
“When I reached Vatukarasa (in Sigatoka), I called him to ask where he was, and he said he was coming,” Mr Khan said.
“He then called my daughter-in-law and said for her to bring $35,000 or some men will kill him.
“We first tried to lodge a report at the Nausori Police Station, but they said they won’t take our report and said for us to go to CPS (Central Police Station) instead.”
Mr Khan claimed that from that day until yesterday, the only thing they’ve been doing was giving statements to police without receiving any updates in return.
He claimed that the discovery of the body on Monday night was relayed to him by a relative and not police.
He said the relative told him to go with his family to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital to identify the body but police would only let him in.
“I had begged them to let his wife in to identify the body because she would be the best person to do so, but they wouldn’t let her or my wife in.
“I kept telling them that his wife was the best person to identify him because she would know of any identifying marks on his body, but they wouldn’t. They said I was the only one allowed in.
“I saw a bald man with no beard. My son had curly hair and a beard, so I told them I could not confirm if that was my son.
“Police then took swabs for DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) testing.”
Shazia Nisha, Mr Afroz Khan’s wife, said if police had taken action from day one, her husband could have been located by now.
She claimed that the last time her husband’s captors called her was on Wednesday, she could tell that there was an Indo-Fijian man and four iTaukei men just from hearing their voices on the phone.
She said she received a call from a man yesterday who claimed to be the brother of ‘Edward Nand’.
The man told her that he was going to look for her husband but later informed her that police had paid a visit to his father so he would not be pursuing the matter further.
“If they had let me see his body at CWM, I would have been able to identify whether it’s him or no because I live with him, right?
“And they never told us anything about the search or how they found the body. They just said that they found it in Tailevu.”
Mrs Khan also said that she was warned by her husband’s captors that they knew her face.
The Khan family said they’ve been advised by Police that a DNA test would take up to six weeks.
While responding to questions from this newspaper, acting Commissioner of Police Juki Fong Chew said he would be looking into the allegations of inaction of police officers.
