Ragpicker arrested for killing elderly woman living on streets in Charkop

A ragpicker was arrested for killing a senior citizen and robbing her of valuables in Mumbai. The accused was arrested within hours of the crime.

MUMBAI: The Charkop police on Wednesday arrested a ragpicker for allegedly killing a senior citizen and robbed her of valuables in Charkop at Kandivali West in the early hours on Wednesday. The accused was arrested within a few hours after the body of the elderly woman was found in the street.

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According to the Charkop police, the victim has been identified as Anusuya Sawant, 70, a widow. Officers said that Sawant had sold her house in Charkop’s sector 12 and moved into her son’s house in Tardeo.

Since Sawant longed to be in her own neighbourhood, she had left her son’s house and moved back to Kandivali and sustained herself by singing devotional songs and begging for alms. Officials said that her daughter Preeti Kadam often called up her mother on her mobile phone and asked her to move to Virar where she resided, but Sawant refused the offer each time as she was not ready to leave Charkkop and live anywhere else.

While living on the streets since the past few months, Sawant had got acquainted with a ragpicker, identified as Mansoor Shaikh, 50, who was aware that Sawant had cash of ₹3,000 with her, a wristwatch and a mobile phone.

Officials from the Charkop police station said that around 1.45am on Wednesday when Sawant was asleep near a drain in Charkop, the accused picked up a rock from the road and bludgeoned her to death. Shaikh then robbed her mobile phone, cash and wristwatch and fled from the area.

Around 3am, a passerby saw her lying in a pool of blood and informed the police by dialling number 100. “We reached the spot and sent Sawant’s body for postmortem at Shatabdi hospital,” said a police officer from Charkop police station. On scanning through the CCTV footage of the area, the police found out that Shaikh had killed the woman. The police then searched for the ragpicker and arrested him from the vicinity when he was trying to sell Sawant’s mobile phone.

“We have arrested Shaikh for murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and will produce him before the court on Thursday,” said a police officer.