A court in Maharashtra’s Raigad district remanded the accused to police custody for seven days on Wednesday in connection with the murder of a 20-year-old woman in Uran, Navi Mumbai.
Previously, officials indicated that the police had added charges under the SC/ST Atrocities Act against the accused, Dawood Shaikh, who was apprehended from the Shahapur area of Gulbarga in neighboring Karnataka on Tuesday morning.
“He was brought to Navi Mumbai on Tuesday night following his arrest in Karnataka. He is currently in the custody of police in Belapur (in Navi Mumbai),” a senior police official stated.
Dawood was presented in the Panvel Sessions Court, where he was remanded in police custody for seven days.
“The police have added charges under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the murder case against Shaikh,” another police official stated.
The woman’s body was discovered in the early hours of Saturday, July 27, after her parents filed a missing persons report on July 25. The autopsy report confirmed that she died from multiple stab wounds, according to the police.
A case under section 103 (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered against an unidentified person, and eight teams were formed to trace the accused. The police initially detained several suspects, whose information led them to Shaikh.
According to the police, the accused had lived in Uran for some time but went to Karnataka after the victim’s father lodged a police complaint against him, leading to a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2019. Shaikh worked as a driver in Karnataka, and the victim remained in contact with him.
A heated argument between the two may have led to the killing, but the exact motive behind the crime is still being investigated, the police said.
