Short fuse murders shock Mumbai

Man killed for 'making fun' of robbers, four men burnt to death for 'staring' at a gangster and other such incidents point to a disturbing trend in our increasingly intolerant, self-centred society, say psychologists

IN telling proof of ours being a dog-eat-dog world where egos are so fragile that the littlest aggravation can drive people to murder, a pan shop owner was brutally killed by four robbers for daring to stop a robbery and smirking at them while he was at it.

This is the fourth such murder in recent times (see box) and psychologists have attributed the disturbing trend to a fast-paced lifestyle, the stress resulting from it, the need to amass money to gain a standing in society and an all-pervading, blinding selfishness.


Nasir Sheikh, one of the four accused, who killed Chand Sayyed on the tracks near Ghatkopar railway station


The deceased, Chand Sayyed (30) was found with his throat slit on platform number three of Ghatkopar railway station in the early hours of Wednesday.

Sayyed had come to the city from Kolkata only eight days prior to his murder and was living with his brother Latif Shaikh in Nityanand Nagar, Ghatkopar (West).

Sayyed, who was in search of a livelihood, had recently started running a pan shop near the Hanuman temple in the area and he used to sleep in the shop at night.

According to the police, four men had gone to Nityanand Nagar on Tuesday night with the intention of carrying out a robbery.
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They were caught red-handed, however, and were thrashed by Sayyed and some other residents, but managed to flee the spot.
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The accused told the police that they were incensed that Sayyed had dared to make fun of them and they decided to teach him a lesson.

A few hours after they fled, the four men returned to Nityanand Nagar, dragged Sayyed out of his shop and took him to the railway tracks in Ghatkopar where they slit his throat. They told the police that they had chosen the spot so that the murder would seem like an accident.

In luck
Interestingly, serendipity helped the Kurla police crack the case when they arrested Nasir Sheikh (19) in connection with a cellphone theft yesterday. He broke down during investigation, confessed to the theft and even to Sayyed's murder and named his three accomplices.

"Amar Sahu and Binu, both in their 20s, were arrested later, while the fourth accomplice is on the run. They confessed to targeting Sayyed as he had made fun of them," said an officer from the Kurla police.

Psychologists' take
Our life is running at a great pace and our mind gets short of fuel, so reasoning is not done, which causes stress. Thinking, which is the part between anger and action, is completely lost in such a scenario and, thus, people commit such criminal offences.
Dr Harish Shetty

People are becoming more and more selfish. They want everything and have no problems killing others if they don't get what they want. All this is happening because of anger and a lack of approval from society. Societal tolerance has also gone down.
Dr Anjali Chhabria

Short Fuse
June 4, 2011: Four men from Kurar Village in Malad were killed allegedly because one of them dared to stare at a local gangster Uday Pathak and his hoodlums. The four youth had their throats slit and bodies set on fire. After an extensive search by locals and the police, their bodies were found in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

February 9, 2011: A man stabbed a prostitute to death and then stabbed himself as well, all because she refused to comply with his wishes. Pandurang had ventured into the red light area of VP Road in south Mumbai looking for a prostitute and had stumbled upon the door of Laxmi Kamble. Following her refusal to comply with his wishes, he forced an entry into her rented room and stabbed her repeatedly. He then dragged her out of the house, flung her on the road and stabbed her again. When he saw that people on the road were staring aghast at him, he started stabbing himself until he lost consciousness.

July 2008: A petty quarrel over right of way led to murder at the Vashi toll naka. The victim, a 40-year-old man identified as Raju, was stabbed to death while he was travelling from Ghatkopar to Pune in a taxi. The fight, which began over jumping the queue for the toll counter, took a tragic turn after an unidentified male occupant from the other caru00a0 stabbed Raju in the chest with a screwdriver. Raju's neighbour Nitin Suradkar, who was also travelling in the taxi, rushed him to the municipal hospital in Vashi along with a traffic constable but he was declared dead on arrival.

Jul 6 2011
Paanwalla's throat slit for smirking
Three robbers killed a paanwala in Ghatkopar for 'smiling' at them, when they were caught and beaten by a crowd

Jun 4 2011
Killed for a stare
Four men from Kurar Village, Malad, were burnt, tortured and killed. Their only crime was to stare at a local goon, which irked his ire

Feb 9 2011
Man stabs call girl
A man stabbed a prostitute to death and then stabbed himself as well, all because she refused to comply with
his wishes

Jul 10 2008
Stabbed for honking
A petty quarrel over right of way led to murder at the Vashi toll naka. The enraged man stabbed the driver with a screwdriver for not moving his vehicle