Solving Crime: How irregularly placed tiles in a Dahisar kitchen helped police crack a salesman’s murder

Raees and Shahida got married in 2012 in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, and moved to Dahisar, where he worked as a clothes salesman. The couple had two children, a daughter and a son. Till June, the police had no leads in the case. It was then that Shaikh’s brother, Anees, came to the city from UP and told the police that he suspected Shahida.

The police decided to focus the probe on Shahida and returned to the Shaikhs’ residence in a Dahisar chawl. It was here that an official noticed a fresh layer of cement and irregularly laid tiles in the kitchen. “When we questioned her, she got defensive. This made us suspicious,” the official added.

The police began interrogating Shahida and also took her children into confidence with Anees’s help. Eventually, her six-year-old daughter started crying and allegedly told the police that Shahida and a neighbour had murdered Raees and buried him in the house.

The police dug up the area where the tiles were freshly laid and found Raees’s body.

On sustained interrogation, Shahida allegedly broke down and confessed.

According to the police, she was having an affair with a neighbour, Amit Mishra alias Aniket. She allegedly told the police that on May 21, her husband had found her in a compromising position with Mishra, following which they slit his throat and buried him in the room.

Mishra had fled by then, but eventually, the police managed to track him down and arrested the duo for Raees’s murder.