Muslim in Mumbai, Hindu in Uttar Pradesh village

It was a case only lateral thinking could have solved. A Mumbai police team went to a village in Uttar Pradesh on the lookout of a man suspected of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl.

Since the lead about the village was given by the man’s estranged wife, the police were certain of finding him there. But the team repeatedly hit a dead end. Because it hadn’t occured to the cops that the man could be living with a double identity: under an Islamic name in Mumbai, and a Hindu one in the village.

The story began on May 10, when Mohammad Anwar Sultan Shaikh, a resident of Masjid Bunder, filed a complaint with the Pydhonie police that his daughter was missing. “We learnt that Mubarak Din Mohammad, 31, a tempo driver known to the girl, was also missing. A case of kidnapping was registered on May 12 against him,” said sub-inspector Pradeep Salunkhe.

During the inquiry, the police found that Mubarak was married to his former employer Zarina Hussain Shaikh, who was elder to him, but did not live with him. “Zarina assured us of her help to track down Mubarak. She told us he is a native of Lambhua tehsil in Sultanpur district. She said she had once visited Mubarak’s residence and could help us trace the missing girl,” Salunkhe said.

The police reached Sultanpur on May 17 and went from village to village in search of the girl. “We had no place to stay and slept in the open… Since Zarina had visited the place long ago, she could not describe the exact locations. All she could remember was that a non-functional hospital was near Mubarak’s residence. We scanned 12 villages, but nobody knew Mubarak,” Salunkhe said.

Meanwhile, Mubarak’s mobile phone number, under electronic surveillance, was traced to be using a tower in Gamha village. “We then showed photographs of the girl to a few children in Gamha. One of them identified her and led us to the house where she was. The house was located close to a non-functional hospital,” Salunkhe said. “We rescued her on May 19. Mubarak was not in the village.”

Subsequently, the police got hold of Mubarak’s father Balchandra Girdhari Gautam, alias Din Mohammad Ali Shaikh. “This was quite a revelation,” Salunkhe said. “Gautam told us he had married a Muslim in Mumbai and had named their four children as per Islam. The family stays in Mumbai as Muslim, and in Gamha as Hindu.
“This is the reason why when we inquired about Mubarak, nobody knew about him. Because he is known as Jagat Bahadur in Gamha. His siblings are: Khursheeda, alias Mamta; Zulekha, alias Manisha; and Shareef Ali, alias Chintamani.”

The police team returned to Mumbai on May 23 with the girl and sent her to the Dongri children’s remand home after a medical examination. The report is awaited.

“We received specific information that Mubarak would be coming near the P D’Mello road, acting on which he was arrested on Tuesday. We are still investigating the case,” said senior police inspector Shamsher Pathan of the Pydhonie police station.

“Mubarak knew the victim and had forcibly taken her to his native place. We are waiting for her medical report to ascertain whether she was raped.”