Pydhonie suitcase murder: Victim’s wife arrested for plotting to kill him

According to the police, the accused, Jay Chavda and Shivjit Surendra Singh, put the victim through hell before murdering him: they tortured and stripped him

MUMBAI: The Pydhonie police on Wednesday arrested Rukshana Arshad Shaikh, the wife of the deaf-and-mute man killed by his own friends on August 4. The police claimed that the woman was close to one of the accused, and this was the reason for her husband being killed.

Jay Chavda, accused

“The accused were trying to pin the blame on each other and even made up different stories,” said a police official. “However, as Rukhsana deleted her WhatsApp chat history on Sunday, we got suspicious.”

According to the police, the accused, Jay Chavda and Shivjit Surendra Singh, put the victim through hell before murdering him: they tortured, stripped and tied him up, made a video of them beating him, and even made a video call to Belgium to one of their friends. After the murder, they stuffed his body into a suitcase and headed to catch an outstation train when they were apprehended by an alert Government Railway police (GRP) constable at Dadar station.

Madhav Kendre, the constable, on spotting the heavy suitcase being lugged by the two, who were about to board the Tutari Express on Sunday night, asked them what was in it. At this point, Singh fled. He was later picked up by the Pydhonie police from Ulhasnagar.

“When the constable forced Chavda to open the suitcase, he was shocked to find a body inside wrapped in a polythene bag,” said a police officer. “When he questioned the accused, the deceased was identified as Arshad Ali Sadiq Ali Shaikh, 30, a resident of Kalina, Santacruz.”

In further investigations, the police found that the deceased was tortured by the two accused, who stripped him and beat him with a beer bottle and hammer. “Chavda, who is a sketch artist, was seen brutally assaulting Shaikh in the video,” said a police officer. “A team headed by DCP Mohit Garg of Zone II found that Chavda and Singh even made a call to Belgium to another deaf-and-mute friend identified as Jaspal Singh.”

The police officer said that the accused were connected with various deaf-and-mute people all over the world via WhatsApp video calls. “Ruksana, the deceased Shaikh’s wife, is also deaf-and-mute and has two children by him,” he said. “She is also a member of various WhatsApp groups and had grown close to Jay Chavda, who is well-to-do. Chavda’s family is settled in Canada. He is unmarried and owns the Pydhonie property where Shaikh was murdered. We suspect that he hatched the plan and called Shaikh for drinks and then killed him with Singh’s help.”

The police suspect that the deceased had come to know about the alleged close relationship between Chavda and Rukhsana, after which they hatched the plan to kill Shaikh. “It was a well-planned conspiracy,” said Irshad Ali Shaikh, brother of the deceased.

A police officer said that Chavda and Shaikh had had a dispute six months earlier. “We are trying to find out what the reason was,” he said.