MAPLE SHADE, NJ — Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw and Maple Shade Police Chief Christopher J. Fletcher announced today that a 38-year-old Indian national has been charged with the March 2017 homicides of a woman and her young son inside an apartment in Maple Shade.
Nazeer Hameed was charged with the slayings and indicted earlier this year on two counts of murder, two counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.
“Our message today is clear – we do not forget, we do not forgive, and we do not stop pursuing those who take innocent lives,” Bradshaw said.
The investigation began on the evening of March 23, 2017, when officers from the Maple Shade Police Department were called to an apartment complex after the bodies of Sasikala Narra, 38, and Anish Narra, 6, were discovered inside their Hamilton Road unit.
An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood determined they each died from multiple slash wounds to their necks.
Anish Narra was nearly decapitated by his attacker.
The post-mortem examination revealed several defensive wounds on the bodies of both victims.
Hameed lived in the same apartment complex as the Narras.
Hameed and Narra both worked for the same company, Cognizant Technology Solutions, which was hired to perform consulting work for a Philadelphia-based business.
Hameed returned to India six months after the killings, where he remains to this day.
As the investigation proceeded, he was identified as a person of interest after it was revealed he was stalking the husband and father of the victims, Hanumanth Narra.
While analyzing the physical evidence collected from the crime scene, it was determined that a tiny droplet of blood collected by investigators did not come from either victim.
It was later determined that the blood was the same type as Hameed and belonged to a male with Central Asian ancestry.
Multiple unsuccessful attempts were made to collaborate with officials in India to collect a DNA sample from Hameed.
In October 2020, the Central Bureau of Investigation in India advised the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Hameed refused to provide a DNA sample.
In March 2023, a Mutual Legal Assistance request was made to the government of India asking that Hameed’s DNA be collected via a court order.
The United States Department of Justice received acknowledgment from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs that they had received the request, but it was never fulfilled.
Detectives working on this case utilized multiple approaches to move the investigation forward.
Ultimately, it was through a request from the Prosecutor’s Office to his employer that a DNA sample was finally obtained connecting Hameed to the slayings.
After being served with a subpoena, Cognizant cooperated and provided investigators with the company-issued laptop utilized by Hameed.
After arriving in the United States at a Cognizant office, the laptop was obtained by law enforcement officials and chain of custody procedures for collecting evidence were employed as it was transported to the New Jersey State Police DNA Laboratory in Hamilton, Mercer County.
A search warrant seeking authorization for forensic processing of the laptop was granted by a Superior Court judge in Burlington County.
An examination of the laptop’s keyboard generated a DNA profile that was determined to be consistent with the DNA from the unknown blood droplet at the murder scene.
The motive for the killings has not been definitively established.
In New Jersey, prosecutors are not required to prove a motive to convict a defendant of a crime.
The next step will be to bring Hameed back to the United States to face prosecution.
“We call upon the United States government and the government of India to take swift and decisive action to ensure this individual is extradited without delay to face the charges that await him here,” Bradshaw said.
An extradition treaty between the United States and India has been in effect since 1999.
The investigation was conducted by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, the Maple Shade Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey State Police.
The lead investigators were BCPO Lt. Brian Cunningham, MSPD Detective Sgt. A. Scot Wallace and FBI Special Agent Anthony DiPietro.
Upon extradition of the defendant, the case will be prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Robert Van Gilst
