Mumbai, July 28: When Ghulam Mohammad Hamid Khan (47), decided to abandon Mumbai and board a train for his UP hometown from the Mankhurd railway station, he decided to travel light.
The first baggage that he decided to get rid of was none other than his 9-year-old daughter Roshni. He didn’t have to look far along came Irfan Sheikh (21), a drug addict.
Not only did the desperate father give the addict permission to have his way with her, he also paid the man to buy himself some drugs.
Mankhurd police Sub-Inspector Popat Salunkhe said, “Hussain was unemployed, and his wife had thrown him out of their house. He wanted to make a fresh start in Jabalpur. He was in the habit of abducting his own children, and using them as leverage to force money out of her.”
He added, “On July 17, he took Roshni with him to the Mankhurd railway station. He waited for three hours, expecting his wife to arrive there to retrieve their child. However, Hussain’s wife did not turn up. Desperate to leave for his hometown, he started looking for an alternative means to get rid of his daughter.”
“He accosted Irfan at the station, and decided to dump Roshni in his custody. He gave Irfan the licence to do anything he wanted with the girl. When Irfan refused to accept the responsibility, Hussain pleaded with him, even bribing him with a sum of Rs 20, asking him to purchase drugs of his choice,” informed Salunkhe.
According to the police report, Irfan then took Roshni into a dark alley, where he attempted to rape her. The terrified girl screamed, at which he clamped her mouth shut, causing her to lose consciousness. Once the girl stopped resisting, he raped her and sodomised her in quick succession.
After having his way with her, he strangulated her with a dupatta, and threw her body into an open drain. The Mankhurd police found Roshni’s stripped body on July 18, and began their investigations, trying to identify her.
-Agencies