3 min readMumbaiJan 24, 2025 08:25 AM IST
First published on: Jan 23, 2025 at 01:32 PM IST
In 2015, Farida Khatun’s 17-year-old son stepped out of their home in Mumbra, a suburb in Maharashtra’s Thane district, promising to be back in 10 minutes. When he failed to return, a distraught Khatun rushed to the local police station, where officials were quick to dismiss her concerns. “He must have gone to Ajmer Dargah like other boys his age,” they told her, sending her away. But Khatun knew something was amiss.
Over the next few months, the 38-year-old single mother kept up her search, following leads and questioning suspects, until she solved the case – and that of another missing person.
It was on April 17, 2015, that Sohail Qureshi left his residence at Amrut Nagar in Mumbra saying he would return after purchasing something. Three days later, Khatun, his mother and a nurse at the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai, went to the police station, only to be turned away.
As days passed with no sign of Qureshi, Khatun, who had separated from her husband, began investigating the matter with help from a local journalist, Mubin Shaikh. As most of Qureshi’s friends were based in Rabale, the duo went to the police station there. The Rabale police officials asked Khatun to check the nearby prisons.
Not wanting to leave matters to chance, Khatun first called relatives in Ajmer but nothing came of it. She then checked the prisons in Thane, Kalyan and Taloja – at times, even waiting outside the jails for the entire day, but to no avail. Refusing to give up, she visited children’s observation homes in the area – and as a last resort, even morgues. But there was no trace of Qureshi.
As months passed by, Khatun juggled work at J J Hospital where another son was undergoing surgeries and continued to search for her missing son.
In mid-September, Khatun learnt that one of Qureshi’s friends, Shabbir, too had been missing from the same date. She rushed to meet Shabbir’s mother Haseena, who confirmed the news. The development made Khatun anxious as she was worried that both the boys had been murdered.
Khatun spoke to Qureshi’s friends and got information on a common friend of Qureshi and Shabbir. When she met and questioned him, he hinted at the involvement of two other common friends, Deepak Valmiki alias Sam and Mohammad Chaudhari alias Babu. Khatun, Haseena and Shaikh approached the Thane Crime Branch with details of the case and the names of the two men they suspected.
Finally, the Crime Branch began probing the matter. Khatun’s worst fears had come true.
Qureshi and Shabbir had been allegedly murdered by Valmiki and Chaudhari, the police claimed. The police said that the duo had first killed Shabbir as he was opposed to Valmiki having an affair with his sister. The police said that they suspected Qureshi was the one who informed Shabbir about the affair so they murdered him as well.
In November 2015, the accused led the mothers and the police to a ground in Turbhe where they had buried Qureshi’s and Shabbir’s bodies, bringing Khatun’s search for her missing son to a painful end.
Farida Khatun at the Turbhe ground where the bodies of her son and his friend were found. (Express photo) 
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