Mumbai man strangles stepdaughter, dumps body in sea – ‘She asked for phone to play games’

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A 40-year-old man allegedly killed his four-year-old stepdaughter in Mumbai by strangulating her and dumped the body in the Arabian Sea, police said on Tuesday.

The girl, identified as Amayara Imran Shaikh, had been allegedly missing since Monday night. After an investigation, police detained her stepfather, Imran Shaikh, who emerged as the main suspect in the case, Hindustan Times reported.

According to the police, the child used to frequently ask Imran for his mobile phone to play games, often staying awake until 3 am. Her repeated demands apparently annoyed him.

On Monday night, in a moment of anger and frustration, Imran allegedly took the child on his bike to south Mumbai, where he stopped at a deserted spot and strangled her. He then allegedly dumped her body into the sea.

A local fisherman named Gopi Dhanu noticed something unusual in the water while heading out from Sassoon Dock around 8.30 am on Tuesday. Upon finding the girl’s body floating in the sea, he brought it ashore and informed the Colaba police. The girl was rushed to St George Hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Her body was then sent to JJ Hospital for post-mortem examination.

At the same time, police had received a kidnapping complaint filed the previous night at Antop Hill police station under Section 137 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The complaint was made jointly by the girl’s mother, Nazia Shaikh, and Imran.

The duo claimed Amayara had gone out to play and never returned. However, when Colaba police shared news of the unidentified child’s body, Nazia was called in and confirmed that it was her daughter.

The police initiated the investigation and examined the family’s background. Nazia has four children from her first marriage, which ended in divorce 18 months ago. Imran, whose previous wife Sayana died a month before he remarried, has three children.

Since Nazia and Imran got married on March 25, all the children had been living together under one roof. Nazia works as a security guard at a private company, while Imran is unemployed and stays at home.

On Monday night, Imran had gone with Nazia to lodge the kidnapping complaint. But soon after the girl’s body was discovered, he turned off his phone and disappeared. Police managed to track and detain him on Tuesday night. A case of murder has been registered against him.