This story is from March 27, 2015

Bangladeshi held in Mumbai for Bengal nun’s rape

In the first arrest in last week’s gangrape of a 71-year-old nun in Nadia, West Bengal, the city crime branch on Wednesday night nabbed a 31-year-old Bangladeshi fisherman. Sikander Shaikh aka Salim was nabbed from his sister’s house in Reay Road, a fishermen’s colony which is home to many illegal migrants.
Bangladeshi held in Mumbai for Bengal nun’s rape
MUMBAI: In the first arrest in last week’s gang rape of a 71-year-old nun in Nadia, West Bengal, the city crime branch on Wednesday night nabbed a 31-year-old Bangladeshi fisherman. Sikander Shaikh aka Salim was nabbed from his sister’s house in Reay Road, a fishermen’s colony which is home to many illegal migrants.
READ ALSO: 71-year-old nun gang-raped in West Bengal, minister blames ghar wapsi
Crime branch sources said West Bengal police had been studying the dam data of a particular cell tower at Ranaghat, where the crime took place, and had stumbled upon a cell number.
“They gave us the number. Our teams worked for three days and tracked him down to south Mumbai. We have handed him over to the Bengal police,” top cop Rakesh Maria said.
READ ALSO: CID arrests suspect from Mumbai
The West Bengal cops have taken Sikander to Kolkata and plan to parade him before the elderly nun so that she can identify him.
His arrest assumes significance as it could lead police to the other culprits in the nun’s rape. Sources said the Bengal CID has detained an associate of Sikander from the Bangladesh border and they are verifying from Sikander if the arrested man was indeed part of his gang.
READ ALSO: Bengal nun prays for forgiveness of her rapists
During the course of the probe, it transpired that Sikander was an illegal Bangladeshi migrant who had settled in India when he was about 18 years old. Initially, he went fishing with his community members, but soon started visiting beer bars where he fell in love with a bar girl, Leena, and married her. Late 2006, he shifted to Surat and did odd jobs. In 2008, he allegedly learned that Leena was having an extramarital affair, leading to fights between the couple.


Christians take part in a peace rally and protest in Allahabad on March 22, 2015 after the rape of a nun in West Bengal. (AFP Photo by Sanjay Kanojia)
Sikander then started torturing Leena, resulting in her filing a dowry harassment case under IPC section 498, leading to his arrest by Byculla police.
After he came out on bail, Sikander kept shuttling between Mumbai, Surat and Bangladesh. “His sister has told police that he often demanded money for his nightlife. He also started luring Bangladeshi youths to the city to commit thefts. The probe has suggested that Sikander was the gang leader in the rape,” an officer said.
Interestingly, this is the same place from where a thief, Badshah Ali, was arrested for sneaking into a Bandra flat and raping a Spanish national in 2013.
author
About the Author
Ahmed Ali

S Ahmed Ali, Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, covers crime and related isues but sometimes he also takes up offbeat subjects. His interests: automobiles particularly bikes, and gymming.

End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA