Mumbai: Woman, son-in-law held for embezzling from deceased doctor

A 48yearold woman compounder in collaboration with her soninlaw allegedly embezzled funds from the clinic and bank account of a deceased doctor After a complaint was filed by the doctors son at the Bangur Nagar police station the woman Taslim Sultan Shaikh assumed the identity of the deceaseds wife to seek anticipatory bail from the sessions court She submitted her daughter and soninlaws marriage certificate to the court claiming it as her own However both the sessions and later the high court rejected her pleas Finally on Tuesday the Bangur Nagar police arrested both her and her soninlaw Arif Shaikh 32According to police sources Taslim and her daughter Namira had been working as compounders at the clinic of Dr Mohammed Asif Khan Prince KGN Khan Clinic on Bhagat Singh Nagar Road in Goregaon WestKhan passed away while on the Hajj on June 24 in Saudi Arabia according to a statement made by his 27yearold son Mohammed Basit a secondyear MBBS student to the police Prior to departing for the pilgrimage Dr Khan fell ill He had stopped going to the clinic since June 1 Namira and another compounder Prem Galfade were visiting the clinic and providing medicines prescribed to patients who had previously been examined by Dr KhanBasit who is studying medicine in Agra received the news of his fathers trip and returned to Mumbai on June 7 His father informed him that he had kept R6 lakh in cash from the clinic an additional R1 lakh which was donations collected for the mosque along with cheques and FD documents in the clinic drawer He urged Basit to accompany him to the clinic to retrieve the cash and documents However considering his fathers deteriorating health Basit declined citing his own concernsDr Khan left India for Hajj on June 23 The following day Basit received a call from a Maulana named Nizamuddin who had accompanied his father informing him that the doctor had passed away due to a heart attack On June 25 Namira contacted Basits uncle and requested the keys to the clinic The latter then informed the youth about this Basit accompanied by his cousin visited the clinic and discovered that all the cash and documents as well as medical prescription papers and the deceasedrsquos Ertiga were missingUpon inquiring with a tenant residing on the clinics first floor Basit learned that Namira and her brother had taken away bags full of items He then approached the Bangur Nagar police who registered an FIR under Sections 381 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code IPC and initiated an investigation Subsequently Basit had to travel to Agra for an exam and returned to Mumbai on July 28 Upon visiting the bank to inquire about his fathers accounts he was shocked to discover that someone had withdrawn R2 lakh on June 30 and Rs 25 lakh on July 8 from them Basit promptly reported this to the policeAfter an inquiry by the police the bank informed them upon reviewing CCTV footage that Namira and her brotherinlaw Arif had made these withdrawals at the behest of Taslim IPC Sections 406 and 420 were then added to the FIR We issued 41 summons to Taslim and Namira In an attempt to secure anticipatory bail she posed as the deceased doctors wife and approached the Dindoshi session court the officer continuedThe marriage certificate she presented in court was in Urdu An investigation revealed that it actually belonged to the daughter who was married to Arif When this information was conveyed to the court both the session court and later the high court rejected her bail application leading to her becoming a fugitiveUnder the guidance of DCP Ajay Kumar Bansal and with the support of Senior Inspector Pramod Tavde and API Vivek Tambe the investigation proceeded Taslima was eventually apprehended and subsequently Arif was also detained Both were presented before the court on Wednesday and they have been remanded in police custody for two days according to a police officerDuring the course of the investigation it was revealed that Taslim had been previously married and had two daughters and a son from her husband who had abandoned her She and her daughter Dr Khan known for his generosity used to sponsor Hajj pilgrimages every year This time when he decided to go himself he took Taslim with him At the time of his demise she was also on the pilgrimageShe had instructed her daughter to take all the cash and cheques and upon returning to India had made withdrawals from the bank using the doctors signed cheques Additionally she had given the doctors Ertiga to her soninlaw The vehicle has been recovered