On Tuesday, 30th July, the Maharashtra Crime Branch arrested Dawood Sheikh who brutally murdered a 20-year-old girl identified as Yashashri Shinde in Uran area of Navi Mumbai. As per the reports, the accused was arrested from his hometown, Gulbarga in Karnataka.
The police had created eight teams to launch a manhunt for Dawood who had fled from Mumbai after he brutally killed Yashashri on 26th July. According to a crime branch officer familiar with the case, Dawood admitted to killing Yashashri Shinde because she had rejected advances earlier and he feared she was in a relationship with another man.
As reported earlier, the dead body of 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. Sheikh reportedly confessed to having murdered the girl as an act of revenge.
Notably, in 2019, the victim’s father had registered an FIR against Dawood Sheikh for molesting and harassing his 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. The family has alleged that Dawood was in contact with Yashshri.
CCTV footage related to the incident has also been accessed by local media which reported that the accused had been keeping watch on the victim in the Uran area. Yashashri in the video can be seen passing through the Uran area street on 25th July. In the same footage 10 minutes later, the accused can be seen following her, hinting at the possibility that the entire incident may have been planned and that the victim was stalked by the accused on the day of the incident.
तीन दिवसांपूर्वी उरणमध्ये एक धक्कादायक घटना घडली होती. यशश्री शिंदे नावाच्या तरुणीची अत्यंत क्रूरपणे हत्या करण्यात आली. आता याचा एक व्हिडीओ समोर आला आहे. ज्यामध्ये आरोपी तरुणीचा पाठलाग करताना दिसून येत आहे. pic.twitter.com/uhi0ciM6cW
— News18Lokmat (@News18lokmat) July 30, 2024
Team OpIndia has obtained the FIR copy of the incident filed on 27th July against an unidentified person. As per the complaint copy, Yashashri had gone missing on the 25th of July. She worked at AMII Business Support Solution in Belapur but was on work off that day. She had left her home saying that she would be with one of her friends and be home soon. However, she failed to be back by 7:45 pm after which the family members of the deceased victim filed a missing person’s complaint (40/2024).
After some time at around 2:20 am the police called the family and said that a dead body was found near a petrol pump in Kotnaka of Uran taluka in Navi Mumbai. The body had been brutally mutilated and the face of the body was also destroyed. The father of the girl, however, identified Yashashri from her clothes and accessories and confirmed that it was his daughter.
“The body was stabbed in several places including her private parts. Her face was ruined. Injury marks could be seen on her stomach and chest. It was Yashashri. She was taken to the Indira Nagar Local Hospital where she was declared dead,” the, father of the deceased victim mentioned in the FIR.
Yashashri sustained three stab injuries on her waist and back. A TV9 report suggested that there were several injuries on her private parts. Her bones were broken and stab wounds were found on her stomach and back. Several injury marks were found on her chest as well. The face was smashed using a rock so that she could not be identified. The father of the victim later identified a suspect in the case as Dawood Sheikh and stated that his daughter was murdered as an act of revenge.
Senior inspector Rajendra Kote had confirmed the suspect saying that the victim girl’s parents had alleged that Shaikh murdered their daughter as she had registered an FIR of molestation and POCSO against Shaikh in the year 2019, after which he was arrested by Uran police and sent to jail.
Team OpIndia also obtained the claimed FIR from the year 2019 which was filed by Yashashri’s father under sections 354 (uses criminal force against a woman to outrage her modesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act, 2012.
As per the complaint, the accused Dawood had followed the girl to her classes and once threatened her to spend time with him. He had tried to coerce her into a relationship. The accused was also caught red-handed forcefully talking to the girl and harassing her. “He had forced my daughter, 15 years old to talk to him and spend time with him. My daughter resisted. He also molested her and forced her to come close to him. He ignored constant resistance from my daughter,” Surendra mentioned in the complaint filed in the year 2019.
As per the information exclusively gathered by OpIndia, the accused Dawood was then arrested by the police and sent to jail for 6 months. After his release, he went back to Karnataka. However, he returned to Mumbai recently intending to murder the girl.
While the 2019 FIR suggested Dawood molested Yashashri, some media reports stated that it was a case of a “love affair gone wrong”. Call records released after the brutal incident suggested that she had been in contact with the accused. Free Press Journal report noted that the police said the victim had a tattoo of the accused’s name on her body.
