SINGAPORE — At the opening of a seven-day trial for the high-profile legless body case, the court heard how the Pakistani duo charged had allegedly plotted to kill their roommate to recover the money they had lost to him.
The prosecution charged that on June 11, 2014, Rasheed Muhammad, 45, and Ramzan Rizwan, 27, had met outside room 44 – which Rasheed and the deceased shared at their lodging house at 6 Rowell Road – to hatch a plot to smother and strangle Muhammad, before dismembering his body and stuffing the body parts into two separate suitcases.
The legless body of 59-year-old Pakistani national Muhammad Noor was discovered in a bloodied suitcase along Syed Alwi Road in the evening on the same day, while his legs were found in another luggage bag nearby at Jalan Kubor Muslim Cemetery.
After hatching their plot, upon entering the room, Ramzan allegedly took Rasheed’s shirt hanging at the back of the door and pressed it against Muhammad’s face, while Rasheed used a string to strangle him. When he became motionless, they took about S$6,000 from him.
Between 9am and 11.17am that morning, Rasheed and Ramzan then headed to Mustafa Centre where they got an electric saw and a grey luggage bag. On the way back, they also bought a bow saw and trash bags.
Once back in the room, the prosecution said they sawed off Muhammad’s legs at his upper thighs, then packed his body and legs into separate trash bags, before putting his legless body into the grey luggage bag.
The duo then made a second trip to Mustafa Centre and got a black luggage bag, which they used to contain Muhammad’s legs.
At about 12.25pm, they each pulled one bag out of the room. Ramzan allegedly dumped the bag containing Muhammad’s legs at Jalan Kubor Muslim Cemetery, while Rasheed is accused of abandoning the other bag along Syed Alwi Road after one of its wheels broke.
The bag with the legless corpse was discovered by an 81-year-old man at about 6pm on July 11, the court heard. Ramzan and Rasheed were separately arrested the next afternoon, following which Rasheed led the police to the cemetery where the bag with Muhammad’s legs were recovered.
The trial is scheduled for seven days and the prosecution is expected to call on 21 witnesses.
