MUMBAI: A 21-year-old watchman was arrested for allegedly entering a 50-year-old woman’s house in Andheri and trying to murder her after he failed to rape her. The incident took place around 5pm on Friday. The woman, who has sustained two stab injuries, is undergoing treatment at a hospital.
The case brings back the memories of the 2012 Pallavi Purkayastha murder in Wadala. In Friday’s case, the watchman, Raja Shebu, according to police, knocked at the woman’s door at Four Bungalows under the pretext of accompanying a cable operator to her house. When he was in the house with the cable operator, he realised that the woman was alone with her paralysed mother. After the cable operator left, the accused allegedly lingered around and tried to initiate a conversation with the woman. All of a sudden the watchman asked the woman for her contact number, which she immediately refused.
According to police, when the accused started touching the woman inappropriately, she resisted, pushed him away and screamed for help. Shebu then forced himself on the woman, tore her dress and tried to rape her, police said. When the woman continued to scream, the accused pulled a kitchen knife and stabbed her twice.
The accused got scared when the woman’s mother, who is in her 80s, screamed for help and other relatives, who stay in the same building, rushed to the house. Police said that Shebu tried to escape from the flat and also assaulted a man who was trying to nab him. He was later nabbed by other residents and police was informed. “The police took Shebu in custody and arrested him for attempted murder and rape,” said a senior officer. Bharat Gaikwad, in-charge of Amboli police station, said, “The accused was produced before a court and remanded in police custody till April 26. He had started work at the building only three days ago. He was sent to the building through a security guards agency.”
Shebu, who hails from West Bengal, was on afternoon duty on Friday. He was sent to the building as a replacement for another watchman who had gone on leave. “We are questioning him to find out if he has committed any other crime in the past,” said an officer.
While the woman’s intestines have been injured, she was said to be stable and out of danger on Saturday. “We have recovered the knife used in the crime. The woman is unmarried and stays in the flat with her sister and mother,” said police. Investigators said there are no CCTV cameras in the building. The woman’s blood-stained clothes have been collected and will be sent for forensic analysis. The police said that they will summon officials of the agency that had sent Shebu to the building. “We will find out if the accused’s credentials were verified before hiring him,” said an officer
