Was opposed to her marriage with his brother, had frequent arguments with her

The police on Sunday solved the murder of a 22-year-old woman who was found dead in Malwani in January this year with the arrest of her brother-in-law. The police said the accused was opposed to her marriage to his brother. He killed her by strangulating her, and then had sex with her corpse.

According to police officials, they were informed of stench emanating from of a large gunny sack in a marshy area near Tharavli village in Malad on January 9 this year.

The police opened the sack to find a decomposed body of a woman in her twenties. They said that the body was naked and wrapped in sheets of paper. The post-mortem examination indicated an injury to the head as well as strangulation, after which the police registered a complaint against unknown persons.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone XI) Vikram Deshmane, said: “We initiated inquiries, and found out that a woman from Ambujwadi in Malad, named Ruby Qureshi (22), had gone missing in January. We tracked down her in-laws, and also contacted her parents, who were staying in Uttar Pradesh. They identified her as Ruby based on the jewellery found on the body. They told us that they had come to Mumbai after Ruby went missing to make inquiries, and were told by her brother-in-law Raees Qureshi that he had seen her two to three times at various locations in the city after she went missing.”

The police then called Raees for inquiries, and asked him about the time he had seen Ruby, as well as why he did not inform the police. Officials said that his responses were evasive and suspicious, after which he was detained and grilled intensively.

An officer with the Malvani police station said, “At the same time, some markings on the gunny sacks in which Ruby’s body was found led us to a unit in Madh Island, where they were manufactured. Parallel inquiries also established that Raees was in the same area in early January, which deepened our suspicion. After prolonged questioning, Raees finally confessed to having murdered Ruby with the help of two of his friends.”

Raees, in his confession, told the police that his younger brother Azad had married Ruby against the family’s wishes, and that he was opposed to the marriage from the outset. This used to cause frequent arguments between Raees and Ruby, and she would regularly insult him in front of his family.

The officer said, “On January 3, Raees called Ruby to meet him at Madh Island when Azad was out of town. When she arrived, Raees hit her on the head with a brick, and then strangled her. As a revenge of all the insults, he raped her corpse. He then stuffed the body into a gunny sack, and dumped it with the help of two friends, identified as Mohammed Qureshi and Ghulam Rasool.” The police said Ruby was pregnant when she was murdered.

Raees was placed under arrest following his confession. Mohammed and Ghulam were arrested from their residences on Sunday.

The trio have been charged with murder and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code.

The accused said that the victim used to regularly insult him in front of his family