Badlapur: In a gruesome incident, a 50-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stabbing his wife, mother-in-law and sister-in-law, as his wife was refusing to give him a divorce and the property papers of his house in Jogeshwari. The sister-in-law died in hospital. The Badlapur police have arrested the accused.
The accused was identified as Mohammed Rashid Shaikh, 50, a resident of Masjid Bandar, who has been married for the past 30 years to Nilofar Shaikh, 45. Mohammed had been asking his wife for a divorce for the past few months, and pronounced talak several times, but Nilofar refused to budge and stayed back in her marital home till last month.
The accused was working in Dubai from 1992 to 2021 till he was dismissed from his job after being diagnosed with cancer. After coming back, he failed to get a job in the city, and his struggle for money began. His cancer treatment had eaten into his savings and he was left with only a property situated in Jogeshwari.
“The couple often had fights over the property,” said senior police inspector Datta Gavde. “Mohamad wanted to sell it but Nilofar didn’t, as she wanted to keep it as a safeguard for her three children’s future. She gave it out on rent instead, which Mohamed did not want. When Mohamad pronounced talak, she went to her mother’s house with all the property documents.”
On Monday, Shaikh reached his in-laws’ house at Badlapur and demanded his property papers from Nilofar. When she refused, he got violent. “When his sister-in-law and mother-in-law tried to prevent him from beating his wife, he stabbed all three in a fit of fury,” said an officer from Badlapur police station. The sister-in-law, identified as Sanobar Sayyed, 30, was stabbed four times in the stomach. She died in hospital. The other two are still undergoing treatment.”
The inspector said that Shaikh had gone to Badlapur with the clear intention of killing his wife since he had carried a knife on his person. “But he also ended up stabbing her mother and sister when they tried to intervene,” he said. “His mother-in-law has injuries on her face and his wife has two stab marks on her stomach. We have got the accused’s police custody for the next four days. He has been charged under IPC 302 for murder and 307 for attempt to murder.”