Corporator son covets wife, gets husband killed

Former MLA's son fell in love with vendor's wife and got him killed, deceased's family alleges; Police wait for post mortem results to file FIR

Corporator son covets wife, gets husband killed

Former MLA's son fell in love with vendor's wife and got him killed, deceased's family alleges; Police wait for post mortem results to file FIR

The family of 42 year-old Rasheed Habib Shaikh, an onion seller in Bandra's Bazaar Road, who died under suspicious circumstances last week, has complained that Shaikh's death is not being investigated properly.
They allege that Shaikh was either poisoned or beaten up by goons of a politician's son, who was in love with Shaikh's wife.

Faiyyaz Shaikh and family mourn the death of Rasheed Shaikh (inset),
who is survived by a wife and two sons, aged 4 and 6. Pic/Mangesh Chafe

Shaikh was taken to Bhabha Hospital on April 12 by two unknown men, who left without filling the admission form. He died at the hospital a few hours later. Shaikh's family said Tabrez Ali Jan Shaikh, the 34 year-old son of Ali Jan Shaikh, a Congress corporator from Bandra (2001 to 2006), knew the vendor and his wife Khulud. They alleged that Tabrez was forcing Shaikh to divorce his wife since Tabrez was in love with her.

"Rasheed received a blank call on his cell phone 15 days before his death, in which he overheard Tabrez tell someone to assault my brother and I," said Faiyyaz Shaikh, the vendor's younger brother, who has a recording of the call.

In October 2010, Shaikh had filed a Non Cognisable complaint against Tabrez and had written a letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, which stated that Tabrez "is giving extortion threats and dire consequence to me (sic)" and "doing this activity to misguide to my wife and brainwashing her mind, due to which she is mentally disturb (sic)".

Copies of the complaint and the letter are with Sunday MiD DAY. "The police took no action then," said Faiyyaz. "The police are not conducting a proper enquiry behind my brother's death. We are going to write a letter to the Home Minister. We want R R Patil to turn the investigation over to some other police station," he said.

Though two post mortems have been carried out on April 13 at the Cooper Hospital and the JJ Hospital, the police are yet to file an FIR, said Shaikh's family. "We are waiting for final results, as it is not yet clear whether he was a victim of a conspiracy or died of a natural cause. Till we receive a final report from JJ Hospital, we cannot say anything. We are trying our best to crack this case," said Police Inspector Ramchandra Ahire of Bandra police station, who is investigating the case.

Ahire said the results could take a month to arrive. While the post mortem report of Cooper Hospital reserved its opinion on the provisional cause of death, the JJ Hospital report stated that there is evidence of subarachnoid haemorrhage and contusion of the chest wall, but reserved its final opinion till further tests were conducted.

A subarachnoid haemorrhage refers to internal bleeding in the brain, which can be caused by a head injury or poisoning. Contusion of the chest wall is caused by injury.