A 28-year-old man, Raees Shaikh, was allegedly murdered by his wife Shahida, 27 and her paramour last month and his body was stashed in a gunny bag. The accused couple then buried Rashid in the kitchen and mounted the tiles with cement to avoid suspicion. Soon after the incident, Shahida's paramour, Amit Vishwakarma, a security guard was untraceable, raising suspicions. While police are extracting Raees' body from the ground, a murder case will be registered and Shahida has been detained.
According to police sources, the deceased Raees had married Shahida in 2012 and the couple was staying at a chawl in Rawalpada Khan Compound with their two kids in Dahisar (E). Raees, who worked at a garment shop near Dahisar railway station, suspected his wife of the illicit affair, but did not act upon it. For a long time, Shahida was having an extra marital affair with Amit, who lived in the same neighbourhood and the duo were desperate to stay together, which is why they decided to eliminate Raees from the picture, said an officer.
On the night of May 20, when the kids were asleep, Shahida and Amit strangled Raees with a nylon rope and stashed him in a gunny bag, which they buried in a hole dug up in Shahida's kitchen, an officer said on request of confidentiality. "The accused couple then laid freshly cemented tiles in the kitchen to avoid suspicion. Amit, however, went missing from the neighbourhood after May 20 and Shahida approached Dahisar Police the next day to lodge a missing complaint," the officer added.
In her statement to the police, Shahida claimed that Raees was missing since May 20 and never returned from work, but police found a few loopholes in her statement. Upon enquiries in the neighbourhood, police learnt about the illicit affair between Shahida and Amit, but the latter was nowhere to be found. Police also tried to dig deep in the investigation by quizzing Shahida and her kids, but to no avail. On Tuesday, however, police noticed the freshly cemented tiles and acting on the suspicion, dug up the tiles, only to find a gunny bag stashed in the ground.
Pravin Patil, senior inspector of Dahisar police station said that the police and forensics team are still excavating the gunny bag from the ground, as it is in a highly decomposed state. "Our officials are trying to neatly remove the body as to preserve evidence and a case of murder and causing disappearance of evidence will lodged thereafter. We are investigating the matter and arrests are likely to be made soon," added Patil.
While police have detained Shahida after she confessed to the crime, a search for Amit is underway. During questioning Shahida told police that she had asked the kids to watch the television with high volume, while Amit and herself were burying the body. The children will be questioned later to record their statement as the incident would he very traumatizing.
