Single mother’s search for missing son reveals two murders in Mumbra

Mumbai: A single mother in Thane district’s Mumbra made a shocking breakthrough in the missing case of her son after police failed to help.

The 38-year-old Farida Khatun was nail-bitingly desperate that day in 2015 when she learnt her son was not yet home nevertheless promising to be back in 10 minutes.

She rushed to the local police station where officials played down her concerns saying the boy must have gone to ‘Ajmer Dargah like other boys his age’, The Indian Express reported.

Khatun, who had separated from her husband, had the hunch that something was wrong and she wanted to know what it was.

Over the next several months, Khatun was out following leads, questioning suspects before lighting upon the truth of another missing case similar to her son’s.

Khatun’s son Sohail Qureshi vanished on April 17, 2015 after leaving home in Amrut Nagar in order to purchase something.

Khatun, a nurse at the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai, went to the police station but she was turned away.

Khatun set out to probe after there was no sign of Qureshi.

A local journalist, Mubin Shaikh, came to help her with the investigation.

Knowing that Qureshi’s friends were based in Rabale they went to the Rabale police station where officials asked Khatun to check the nearby prisons.

Expecting some breakthrough she called her relatives in Ajmer but nothing came of it.

She went to prisons in Thane, Kalyan and Taloja looking for Qureshi but often vainly waited whole day outside jails.

Afterwards, she visited children’s observation homes in the area.

Eventually, she went to morgues but Qureshi was untraceable.

Despite failures and struggles, Khatun juggled work at J J Hospital and continued the search.

It was then in mid-September Khatun came to know that Qureshi’s friend, Shabbir too was missing from same date.

Khatun met Shabbir’s mother Haseena and confirmed the news. Khatun worried that both the boys had been murdered.

Khatun learnt that there was a common friend of Qureshi and Shabbir and she met him.

He gave details about two other common friends Deepak Valmiki alias Sam and Mohammad Chaudhari alias Babu.

Khatun, Haseena and Shaikh handed the details of the two men they suspected to the Thane Crime Branch.

The Crime Branch investigation confirmed Khatun’s worst fears that Qureshi and Shabbir had been allegedly murdered by Valmiki and Chaudhari.

It is reported citing the police the duo first killed Shabbir for opposing Valmiki having an affair with his sister.

They murdered Qureshi suspecting that he had informed Shabbir of the affair.

Eventually in November 2015, the accused led both mothers and the police to the place in Turbhe where they had buried Qureshi’s and Shabbir’s bodies.

Thus Khatun’s search for her missing son came to a painful end.