Days after headless body of woman found; Son arrested for murder

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Nine days after the headless body of a woman was found in Mumbai, police claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of her 30-year-old son.

Sohail Shaikh, resident of suburban Kurla, allegedly strangulated his mother to death on December 28 in an inebriated state. He later chopped the body and disposed it, an official from Ghatkopar police station said on Thursday.

The victim and the accused used to have frequent fights over his liquor addiction and not doing any job. The accused's wife had also left him some months ago, he said. According to the official, Shaikh and his mother had a fight again on December 28 night following which the accused strangulated her to death.

"He didn't realise what he had done until the next morning. He first visited a local dargah as he could not figure out what to do with the body. Then, he watched a crime show on television from which he got the idea to chop the
body," he said.

"Shaikh later chopped the body into some pieces and disposed the body parts separately," the official said. The headless torso was found on December 30 on Kirod Road in Vidyavihar area following which police registered a murder case.

The next day, two chopped legs, wrapped in a rexin sheet, were found dumped in a dustbin in suburban Ghatkopar. On January 4, police recovered the severed head from under a bridge on Santacruz-Chembur Link Road.

"Since the body parts were highly decomposed, it was difficult to establish the victim's identity. We worked on facial reconstruction by drawing sketches of the woman's face based on the skeletal remains," the official said.

Besides, on examining CCTV footage of areas where the body parts were found, the police noticed a two-wheeler near all the three spots and identified Shaikh as a suspect.

"We first enquired with a person in Shaikh's neighbourhood who informed that the latter's mother was not seen since some days. We also found that when Shaikh's sister asked him about their mother, he told her that she had gone to Delhi to meet some family members," he said.

Based on the information, the police picked up Shaikh from his residence on Wednesday afternoon. "During the course of investigation, Shaikh confessed to have killed his mother," the official said.

The accused was booked under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder), he said, adding that further probe in the case was on. 

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