After the shocking murder of Yashashri Shinde in Navi Mumbai, two more cases of brutal sexual assaults have come to light from the Mumbai area. Notably, Shinde was found lying in a pool of blood on an isolated road near a petrol pump in Kotnaka of Uran taluka in Navi Mumbai.
On Sunday, 28th July, the Maharashtra Police booked two individuals identified as Mohammed Galib Sheikh and Talib Sheikh for harassing, threatening, and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in the Penkarpada area of Mumbai. The accused persons have also been charged for forcing the girl to commit suicide.
The incident is said to have taken place in the last week, however, the FIR in the case was filed at Kashmira Police Station in Mumbai on 28th July. The victim was a minor and belonged to the Phulpur area of Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgadh district. As per the FIR copy exclusively obtained by OpIndia, the girl was allegedly abducted by the accused Galib who brought her to Mumbai.
The girl had gone missing from her village on 22nd July. While the family of the girl was looking for her, they were informed by one of the villagers that she had committed suicide on 25th July, and that she was last seen with the accused Galib Sheikh in Mumbai.
As per the mother of the girl who filed a complaint in the case, the accused Galib, who belongs to the same village, had been following and harassing the victim. “He (Galib) used to follow my daughter to her school. He used to threaten her to leave the school and marry him. He used to harass her and say that he would continue harassing her even if she got married to some other person,” she said.
“I was worried about my daughter’s safety so I dropped her off at school, because he had threatened my daughter that he would abduct her and marry her. He had also taken her to Mumbai earlier. I had then complained at Nizamabad Police Station but his threats continued. However, my daughter went missing on 22nd July. Somebody then informed me that she was last seen with Galib Sheikh. He is the one who has forced my daughter to commit suicide. She has ended her life being fed up with Galib and his brother’s (Talib) harassment,” the mother said.
As per the complaint, the accused is said to have sexually assaulted the minor girl in the Penkarpada area of Mumbai after which she committed suicide. As per the family, the girl was sexually assaulted previously by Galib who had threatened her to keep quiet about it.
The police have charged Galib Sheikh and Talib Sheikh under sections 137(2), 87, 96, 64(1), 108 of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita, 2023, and section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
Dr Asif Khan lures, sexually assaults 34-year-old Hindu, flees
Another horrifying case of sexual assault was filed by a 34-year-old woman at Mira Road Police Station on 22nd July saying that one Dr Mohammed Asif Khan lured her into a relationship first, and then sexually assaulted her on the pretext of marriage. The accused, as per the FIR, assaulted the woman several times and forced her to abort her pregnancy three times. He promised her that he would marry her and also made her talk to his mother Rajiya Khan for assurance.
The accused and his mother are said to have made fake promises to the woman, after which the accused fled from Mumbai, and went to Vapi, Gujarat, his home. The woman in the complaint said that the accused later stopped taking her calls and also refused to marry her.
The sexual assaults continued from February 2023 to June 2024. The police have booked the accused under sections 376(2)(n), 313, and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 read with section 173 of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita, 2023. Further investigations are underway.
Concerns about women safety in Mumbai
The safety of women has become in new concern in the state of Maharashtra. This is after the dead body of a 20-year-old woman identified as Yashashri Shinde was found lying in a pool of blood on an isolated road near a petrol pump in Kotnaka of Uran taluka in Navi Mumbai on 26th July. Her private parts had been brutally stabbed and her face was smashed using a rock so that she could not be identified. The parents of the girl identified the accused as Dawood Sheikh who is believed to have murdered the girl as an act of revenge.
Notably, in 2019, the victim’s father had registered an FIR against Dawood Sheikh for molesting her daughter. As she was a minor, a case under Sections 354 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 8 and 12 of POCSO were registered. Dawood was arrested and sent to jail. After coming out of jail, he went to Karnataka and later returned to Mumbai to take revenge. He is believed to have trapped the girl in a ‘love’ affair and then murdered her. The family has alleged that Dawood was in contact with Yashshri. Investigations in the case are underway.
