Bhiwandi woman arrested for murdering man over property dispute

The woman stabbed him to death in a lodge room after he refused to transfer ownership of two rooms he bought with her money

BHIWANDI: The Kongaon police in Bhiwandi on Sunday arrested a woman for allegedly stabbing to death a 64-year-old man in a lodge in Bhiwandi.

HT Image

The incident took place at Cosmo lodging and boarding hotel in the Kongaon area in Bhiwandi between the night of Saturday and Sunday.

The accused has been identified as Shagufta Begum Rafique alias Shabina, 52, who lived with a family member in the Khadipar area in Bhiwandi, while the deceased has been identified as Dastagir Allahbaksh Shaikh, 64, who lived with a family in the same locality. Shabina regarded Shaikh like her elder brother and his daughter is married to Shabina’s son, the police said.

According to the police, Shabina and Shaikh booked a room in a lodge nearby around 10.30 pm to sort out their differences over two properties that Shaikh had purchased with Shabina’s money and he was not transferring back to her. Around 1 am, when she was leaving the lodge alone, a lodge staffer asked her the whereabout of Shaikh was with her during the check-in. The staffer got suspicious by her evasive replies and sent a colleague to check the room who discovered that Shaikh was lying in a pool of blood with stabs wounds on his neck and abdomen. They then detained Shabina and called the police.

Rajendra Pawar, Senior Police Inspector, Kongaon Police Station said, “We rushed to the spot and found a dead body lying on a bed and sent the body to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Bhiwandi for post-mortem. The staffer handed over the accused to us. During her interrogation, she revealed that she worked in Saudi Arabia as a maid and had transferred money to the Shaikh’s account to purchase two rooms in his own name and later transfer the property to her name when she came to India. But he refused to transfer the ownership title to her name and that’s why she killed him.”

Pawar said their investigations showed that she had planned the murder and carried a knife with her. “We have seized the weapon from her possession. We have booked a case against her under section 302 (Punishment of Murder) of Indian Penal Code.”

Shaikh suffered deep injuries in her abdomen and neck. The accused Shamim was produced in court and remanded into police custody till January 18.