Deaf & Mute murder: Red Corner notice against Brussels-based accused | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: A Red Corner Notice has been issued against Jagpalpreet Kamal Singh, a Brussels-based person of Indian origin who allegedly provoked and instructed two men with speech and hearing impairment to kill their associate in August last year, Pydhonie police said on Friday.

Singh, who is also hearing and speech impaired, had shared videos of his calls with the two accused on community WhatsApp groups in Belgium, and was questioned by authorities there in October 2024 after group members reported about his alleged involvement in the crime.

“The Red Corner Notice is an important step in the investigation,” said a police officer aware of the matter. “We had earlier issued a Look Out Circular against Singh and even visited his native place in Punjab but failed to locate him.”

A Red Corner Notice is a request from Interpol to law enforcement agencies across the world to locate and arrest a person wanted in a member country for committing a serious crime.

The murder came to light on August 5, 2024, when a government railway police constable noticed two men, identified as Jay Chavda and Shivjeet Singh, pulling a large suitcase on platform number 11 in Dadar station. Finding their activities suspicious, he checked the suitcase and found a body wrapped in polythene inside.

Both Chavda and Singh were arrested subsequently, while the deceased was identified as Arshad Ali Sadiq Ali Shaikh, 30, a resident of Kalina. Ruksana Arshad Shaikh, the deceased’s wife, was arrested later and the police claimed that she was having an extramarital affair with Chavda and was aware of the conspiracy to kill her husband.

Police took the help of a teacher from the Bombay Institute for Deaf and Mute, Ayaz Ahmed Nazir Shaikh, to communicate with the accused, including Ruksana, who was also hearing and speech impaired.

During investigation, the team headed by deputy commissioner of police Mohit Garg and senior police inspector Balkrishna Deshmukh from Pydhonie police station found that Chavda and Singh had stripped, tied up and tortured Shaikh to death, and even made a video of the assault. They had also made several video calls to Jagpalpreet Kamal Singh, a native of Phagwara in Punjab who was based in Brussels.

“Singh had provoked the accused during the video calls and instructed them to torture, beat and kill Arshad Shaikh,” said the officer quoted earlier. There was competition among Shivjeet Singh and Arshad Shaikh over supremacy within their group, which prompted Jagpalpreet Singh to provoke Shivjeet and Chavda, said the officer. “He had even posted videos of him provoking the other accused on social media but deleted them later as he was afraid.”

The police then issued a Look Out Circular against Jagalpreet Singh and visited Phagwara in Punjab in a bid to locate him, without success.

“The Red Corner Notice will help us as any agency across the world can now detain him and the extradition process can be started,” said the officer.