Following the shocking murder of Yashashri Shinde in Navi Mumbai, one additional case of brutal sexual assault has emerged in the Mumbai area. Shinde was discovered in a pool of blood on a remote road near a petrol pump in Kotnaka, Uran taluka, Navi Mumbai.
On July 28, the Maharashtra Police charged Mohammed Galib Sheikh and Talib Sheikh with harassing, threatening, and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in the Penkarpada area of Mumbai. The accused are also facing charges for allegedly coercing the girl into attempting suicide.
The incident reportedly occurred last week. The victim, a minor from the Phulpur area in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district, was allegedly abducted by Galib Sheikh, who brought her to Mumbai. The girl had been missing from her village since July 22. While her family was searching for her, they were informed by a villager that she had committed suicide on July 25 and had been last seen with the accused, Galib Sheikh, in Mumbai.
According to the girl’s mother, who filed the complaint, the accused Galib, who is from the same village, had been stalking and harassing the victim. “He (Galib) used to follow my daughter to her school. He used to threaten her to leave the school and marry him. He used to harass her and say that he would continue harassing her even if she got married to some other person,” she said.
“I was worried about my daughter’s safety so I dropped her off at school, because he had threatened my daughter that he would abduct her and marry her. He had also taken her to Mumbai earlier. I had then complained at Nizamabad Police Station but his threats continued. However, my daughter went missing on 22nd July. Somebody then informed me that she was last seen with Galib Sheikh. He is the one who has forced my daughter to commit suicide. She has ended her life being fed up with Galib and his brother’s (Talib) harassment,” the mother said.
According to the complaint, the accused sexually assaulted the minor girl in the Penkarpada area of Mumbai, leading her to commit suicide. The family claims that Galib had previously assaulted the girl and threatened her to remain silent about the abuse.
The police have charged Galib Sheikh and Talib Sheikh under sections 137(2), 87, 96, 64(1), 108 of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita, 2023, and section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
