Mumbai: Man held for killing elderly woman during robbery attempt

The police said the accused, Mohamed Faees Rafiq Sayyed, was familiar with Mulla as his mother was acquainted with her.

The accused, who previously worked as a site supervisor, was unemployed for a long time. The police said he was finding it difficult to sustain his wife and two children.

As Mulla wore some gold ornaments, he decided to rob her. Sayyed then called her to his house for tea, said an investigator.
Accordingly, when she went to his house at around 6pm, the accused tried to snatch her earring but as she fought back, Sayyed allegedly assaulted her with an iron rod.

“He hit her on her head twice due to which she collapsed,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Latkar (port zone).
“Sayyed panicked after which he wrapped her remains in a sack and threw it on the backside from his window. And sometime later, he went to the spot again and set it on fire after pouring kerosene on it,” Latkar added.

In the afternoon on October 26, the Wadala police received information that a partially burnt body of a woman was found lying between gate number 4 and 5 of the Bombay Port Trust. A team was sent to the spot.

“We had found some gold ornaments also on her. So in an attempt to identify her, we took the pictures of the body and her gold ornaments and stuck those pictures in the nearby areas during which one of the shopkeepers identified her through her dyed hair,” said an officer.
The shopkeeper further informed that she works as a domestic help and also gave details of her employer. Subsequently, the police also approached her two children, who also identified her.

An officer said, “When we went and checked with the employer, she told us that the woman has not come to work for the past three to four days following which our teams started scrutinising the CCTV footage.”

While the police officials started checking with their local informers, they came across a person who had seen her enter Sayyed’s house.
Accordingly, Sayyed was taken into custody for interrogation.

He confessed to the crime and alleged that he did not intend to kill her and only steal her gold ornaments.

However in his robbery bid, the accused claims he happened to hit a rod on her head multiple times due to which Mulla died.
The accused has been booked under relevant sections of murder, robbery and destruction of evidence of the Indian Penal Code.