Mumbai: 60-year-old murdered woman's brother confesses to crime

The youngest brother of a 60-year-old woman, whose decomposed body was recently found at her house along with her nephew’s, was on Thursday arrested for their murder.

Aslam Rafiuddin Shaikh, 50, claimed that he committed the advocates’ murders not only to usurp sister Fehmida Shaikh’s property, but also to avenge his ill-treatment at her hands. He alleged that she “treated him like a servant”.

The bodies of Fehmida Shaikh and nephew Arsh Ahmed Shaikh alias Shera were found in a decomposed state on October 10. The police began a multi-pronged probe, looking at any dispute over property and business, and with neighbours and relatives.
“During the investigations, when we called up Aslam Shaikh and asked him to claim the bodies. His lack of interest surprised us,” said Patil.

Working on this lead, the police picked him up from the Mumbai Central railway station on Thursday when he arrived from Meerut to complete the last rituals. He confessed to the crime during questioning.

He claimed that he was kicked out of the house in 1989. Fehmida Shaikh reportedly gave him Rs50,000 and made him relinquish his rights to the property.

Aslam Shaikh had the murder all planned out. He knew that sibling Iqbal’s wife Tabassum, who lived with the Shaikhs, left for her maternal home on Friday and returned only on Sunday. He decided to kill the two in the interim.

He stabbed his sister nine times and then the nephew 17 times. While stabbing the two, he had injured himself. When questioned, he was evasive about his injury, which set the police’s alarm bells ringing.