25-year-old married woman held for killing her lover, stuffing body in drum over money

A 26-year-old engineer was murdered by his lover, her husband, and two accomplices after he stopped sending her money, leading to their arrest.

THANE: What began with late-night chats and romantic messages ended in a brutal murder of a 26-year-old engineer who was beaten to death, stuffed inside a blue drum and dumped in a secluded drain in Vasai, by his married lover, her husband and two accomplices after he stopped sending her money.

25-year-old married woman held for killing her lover, stuffing body in drum over money

The Mumbra police arrested the 25-year-old woman and her brother for allegedly murdering her lover with the help of her husband and another accomplice. The woman’s husband and his friend are currently absconding.

The deceased, identified as Arbaz Maqsood Ali Khan, 26, was a resident of Mumbra and worked as an engineer with a prominent real estate developer in Dombivli.

According to the police, Khan had been in a relationship with Mehajabeen Khatun Ekran Sheikh, 25, a resident of Vasai, since 2021. Investigators said the affair initially appeared genuine, with frequent conversations and affectionate exchanges between the two. However, police claimed that Mehajabeen gradually began asking Khan for money, which he regularly transferred to her bank account over the years.

Police said the relationship soured after Khan allegedly stopped sending her money every month, following which Mehajabeen allegedly plotted his murder along with her husband Hasan Sheikh, her brother Tariq Sheikh and the latter’s friend Mojjam Pathan.

According to the police, on April 3, Khan had gone to Dadar to collect cash for his company but never returned home. His mobile phone was found switched off, prompting his father to lodge a missing complaint at the Mumbra police station the following day.

During the investigation, police analysed Khan’s call detail records and mobile location data. Officers found that on the day he went missing, Khan’s location matched Mehajabeen’s location in Vasai. Investigators also found that Khan had transferred ₹50,000 to Mehajabeen’s bank account a day before he disappeared.

When questioned initially, Mehajabeen allegedly denied knowing anything about Khan’s disappearance. However, during sustained interrogation, she allegedly confessed that she had called Khan to her residence in Bhoidapada, Vasai, on the day he went missing.

Police said that once Khan arrived at the house, Mehajabeen allegedly demanded more money from him. When Khan told her he had no money and the accused allegedly found nothing valuable on him, Hasan Sheikh, Tariq Sheikh and Mojjam Pathan tied his hands and legs before brutally assaulting him with a plastic pipe.

Investigators said Khan suffered severe head injuries during the assault and died on the spot. The accused then allegedly stuffed his body into a blue drum and dumped it in a drain in an isolated area under the jurisdiction of the Valiv police station in Vasai.

Priya Damale, assistant police commissioner, Mumbra, said, “Mehajabeen wanted to extort money from Arbaz, and when she failed to get the money, she along with the other three accused killed him. To destroy evidence, they stuffed the body in a drum and dumped it in an isolated spot in Vasai. The Mumbra police, including senior police inspector Anil Shinde, police inspector (Crime) Sharad Kumbhar and others, solved the case and traced the drum in which the body was stuffed and recovered the body.”

Senior police inspector Anil Shinde of the Mumbra police station said Mehajabeen and her brother Tariq Sheikh were arrested on May 7, while teams are searching for Hasan Sheikh and Mojjam Pathan, who remain on the run.

Police have registered a case under sections 140, 3(5) (kidnapping or abducting to murder or for ransom), 103(1) (outlines the punishment for murder) and 238 (deliberately destroys evidence of a crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against all four accused at the Mumbra police station.