SALOORA, FEBRUARY 2 When Jammu and Kashmir police investigators and forensic experts arrived here on Friday for the second round of exhumation in the fake encounters case, they had to sneak past hundreds of angry villagers gathered on the roads after shutting down Ganderbal: the epicentre of the encounters.

Some villagers showed the grave where they had buried Nazir Ahmad Deka, after the police handed over his body as that of an unidentified “militant”. Deka earned his living selling perfume bottles on a pavement in Srinagar. When the body was pulled out, it was decomposed beyond recognition after a year of his killing. But some evidence had survived: the perfume bottle that Deka carried in his pocket and the thermals that he wore under his clothes.

What also emerged today was a shocking tale of a policeman who plotted against his own neighbours; got them picked up by the Ganderbal police, which killed them in fake encounters and dubbed them Pakistani militants; and who then approached the families of the same men promising to help find them and extract money in return.

“Constable Farooq shocked us when he said Ali Mohammad Padroo was buried there. We had no idea about this man till then. Now the number of missing villagers killed in fake encounters has reached five,’’ an investigator informed.

One of the men in whose disappearance Farooq is now believed to have had a hand is south Kashmir villager Ghulam Nabi Wani, who went missing last year. Sources said police are questioning the constable on whether Wani had been buried in Kangan.

Among those Farooq duped was Deka’s wife Tasleema who was present at the exhumation today with her two children —- son Umad Nazir (1) and daughter Aneesa Nazir (3). The two had to give samples for DNA matching.

Police have learnt that after Deka went “missing”, Farooq approached Tasleema offering sympathy and help as a policeman. “He would accompany the family to the Special Operations Group Headquarters and other police stations, make her sit outside and then go inside with Deka’s picture, pretending he was looking for him. He then demanded money, telling Tasleema he needed to pay bribe to check for Deka’s whereabouts. She had nothing but he even took Rs 500 from her recently,” said an investigating officer.

Tasleema says, Farooq wouldn’t let her go to Ganderbal. Accompanied by relatives and neighbours, she was already mourning by the time she arrived at the grave site today. After hours of digging, the body was brought out. Tasleema saw the perfume bottle, then the thermals Deka used to wear underneath his clothes and she knew it was her husband she was looking at.