Mumbai teen strangled by aunts; both women arrested
One of the woman’s 17-year-old daughter has been detained for torturing the victim.
The Antop Hill police have arrested two women for murdering a 15-year-old on Sunday, following a post-mortem report from Sion hospital that confirmed the teenager, Mainaz Mohammed Hussain Qureshi, was strangled.
The arrested accused – identified as the victim’s maternal aunts, Sabira Yusuf Sayed, 45, and Swaleeha Salim Sayed, 35 – were produced in court and remanded in police custody till May 9. Sabira’s 17-year-old daughter has been detained for torturing the victim.
On Friday, the Antop Hill police were alerted about Qureshi, who was brought to the Sion hospital and declared dead on arrival. The accused, at the time, claimed that Qureshi had slipped and fell in the bathroom which caused her death, said a police official. However, doctors informed them about marks on her neck, which indicated an unnatural death.
The women were detained on Saturday. The police found bite marks on Swaleeha’s hands and nail marks on Sabira’s body. “When we quizzed them about these injuries, they confessed that they strangled the victim with a dupatta. They claimed that the incident took place after Qureshi refused to attend the namaaz (prayers) on Friday,” the officer said.
“We have the dupatta in possession. We had earlier registered a case of accidental death,” said Anil Kumar Yadav, police inspector, Antop Hill station.
After the death of her mother when Qureshi was five months old, she was placed in the care of her paternal uncle for two years. After this, she was shifted to her maternal grandparents’ home at Anthop Hill. Her maternal uncles Yusuf and Salim (husbands of the accused) received the certificate of guardianship in 2007. Mohammed Hussian Umar Qureshi, the victim’s father, said, “I met my daughter a week ago, when she told me she was being treated like a domestic help at her grandparents’ home. However, her uncles refused to give me custody.”
A case has been registered under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian penal code.