Teen killed, chopped into pieces by brother-in-law over suspicion of illicit affair with wife

Sheikh told the police that he suspected that the deceased had an inappropriate relationship with his wife, whom he married earlier this year

Mumbai: An investigation into the disappearance of a 17-year-old boy led RCF police to uncover a gruesome murder. The missing boy’s brother-in-law had allegedly murdered him and chopped his body into pieces as he suspected that he was having an illicit relationship with his wife.

Teen killed, chopped into pieces by bro-in-law

After chopping the body into four pieces, the accused Shafiq Sheikh, 33, had allegedly stored the body parts in his kitchen. Sheikh had apparently murdered the 17-year-old on Monday morning, and intended to dispose of the parts one by one. However, the boy’s adoptive father (Sheikh’s father-in-law) went looking for him when he didn’t return home and lodged a missing complaint with the police. As the boy was a minor, a kidnapping case was registered.

“The father also told us that Sheikh had come to their place on Monday morning and took the boy to his house in Vashi Naka, Chembur. So we started interrogating Sheikh about the last time he saw the boy and where he went afterwards,” said an official from RCF police.

During this interrogation, the police felt that his responses were not adding up. They, therefore, went to his house to check whether the boy was still there and found his remains stuffed in polythene bags in the kitchen.

Deputy commissioner of police for Zone 6, Hemraj Singh Rajput, said that it was during his interrogation that Sheikh told the police that he suspected that the deceased had an inappropriate relationship with his wife, whom he married earlier this year.

Sheikh also has a murder case registered against him in Uran tehsil of Raigad district. The trial in the case went on for eight years and after which he was acquitted. For the past several years, he has been driving an autorickshaw throughout the night, said another police officer.

“His wife’s family lives not very far from their marital home. As he was out working through the nights, she would often stay at her father’s place. The couple would even have most of their meals at her parental home,” said the second officer. He added that the victim was an orphan, who lost his parents when he was barely 8 years old and he was informally adopted by the father-in-law of the accused.

On Monday morning, after he returned home from work, Sheikh took the boy to his place under some pretext. “He seemed to have planned everything in advance. At home, he attacked the boy with a dagger which he then also used to chop his body parts. He was unable to chop some of the parts with the weapon he had. The marks of unsuccessful attempts at chopping some of the parts are also visible on the body,” said a policeman.

After his confession, Sheikh was arrested and charged under sections 302 (murder), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 201 (destruction of evidence of an offence) of the Indian Penal Code.