Two construction workers who tried to save their colleague from committing suicide unwittingly found themselves on the wrong end of a murder investigation.
According to the MIDC police, the body of a 32-year-old woman was found at a construction site in Andheri on Wednesday. The body, which was seen by the site supervisor, was lying on the ground and the supervisor immediately called up the police.
Further inquiries identified the deceased as Numeher Bibi Sheikh, 32, a native of West Bengal, who was a construction worker at the site. At the same time, the police discovered that two other workers, who were frequently seen in her company, were missing since Wednesday (July 6), when the body was found.
Based on the position of the body and the missing labourers, the police registered a case of murder under the Indian Penal Code and launched a manhunt for the duo.
After a day’s search, the police finally traced and picked up one of the two men from the Wardha railway station.
“It was when we questioned him that we realised that the case might not be a murder at all. He told us that he and the other suspect were strolling through the construction site when they saw that she had died by suicide. In an attempt to save her, they took her body down and laid it on the ground. However, they realised that she was already dead, and panicked, after which they fled the scene,” said senior police inspector Satish Gaikwad, MIDC police station.
"The police are still awaiting a final cause of death to be known from the doctors who conducted her post-mortem examination, while also trying to ascertain a motive behind her extreme step. However, according to inquiries conducted so far, the probability of the death being a suicide than murder is higher," police officials said.
“We will soon be conducting inquiries with the other colleague so that we can cross-check both their statements. The final post-mortem report, too, will arrive by this time,” Gaikwad said.
So far, the police know that Shaikh was married but had separated from her husband and that she knew the two men before they came to Mumbai looking for work.
