A four-year-old girl’s body was found in the sea near Sassoon Dock on Tuesday morning. Her stepfather, Imran Shaikh, had emerged as the prime suspect in the case after he switched off his phone and absconded. The police managed to detain him on Tuesday night.
According to the police, the girl, Amayara Imran Shaikh, used to ask Imran for his phone to play games till 3 am without sleeping. She made similar demands frequently that left him irritated. Out of frustration, on Monday night, he took her on his bike to south Mumbai and allegedly stopped at an isolated spot to strangle her. He then dumped her dead body in the sea.
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Around 8.30 am on Tuesday, Gopi Dhanu, a fisherman, was taking his boat from Sassoon Dock when he discovered the body floating in the water. He carried it to the dock before alerting the Colaba police. The police took the girl to St George Hospital where she was declared dead. They then took the body to the JJ Hospital for post-mortem.
The Colaba police immediately informed all local police stations about the unidentified girl’s body. They found that on the previous night, the Antop Hill police station registered a kidnapping case under Section 137 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. According to the complaint filed by her mother and Imran, before she went missing, Amaraya had gone to play. When the police showed the dead body to her mother, 40-year-old Nazia Shaikh, she recognised it was her daughter. The Antop Hill police immediately launched an investigation.
{{/usCountry}}The Colaba police immediately informed all local police stations about the unidentified girl’s body. They found that on the previous night, the Antop Hill police station registered a kidnapping case under Section 137 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. According to the complaint filed by her mother and Imran, before she went missing, Amaraya had gone to play. When the police showed the dead body to her mother, 40-year-old Nazia Shaikh, she recognised it was her daughter. The Antop Hill police immediately launched an investigation.
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A police officer said Nazia had four children from her first marriage and divorced her husband 18 months ago. Imran’s wife Sayana had died a month before he remarried and he has three children from his first marriage. The children have been staying together with Nazia and Imran since the two got married on March 25. Nazia works as a security guard at a private firm, while Imran has no job and stays at home, said a police officer.
“Imran Shaikh was with her on Monday night to file a kidnapping complaint. Before she went missing, they said their daughter had gone to play. But after we found the body, he switched off his phone and fled.”
The police have registered a case of murder and detained Imran on Tuesday night. The police are waiting for the post-mortem report.