Mumbai: The Sessions Court has sentenced a 28-year-old man to life imprisonment for killing his aunt in Powai in April 2018 over a dispute about her share of his grandmother’s property.

On April 17, 2018, the accused Tausif Hashmat Shaikh stabbed his aunt Raisa over the property issue. The complaint was filed by Raisa’s tenant at the Powai Colony police station. Raisa had been living in a room that originally belonged to her late mother-in-law, claiming ownership of four rooms in the property. However, the rooms were contested by her brother-in-law Hashmat and his sons, Tausif and Aasif.

Raisa, who lived in Lucknow, had moved back to Powai with her son Osama two days before the incident. She often stayed in the room when visiting Mumbai. Tausif and his father insisted on vacating the room, but Raisa claimed possession as the wife of Hashmat’s deceased brother, Kareem.

The prosecution examined 11 witnesses, with key testimony coming from Raisa’s tenant and her son, Osama. Osama, who was 10 years old at the time of the incident and 16 when he testified, was an eyewitness. He stated that Tausif and his father were determined to take over the room and that Aasif and Tausif had previously beaten his mother multiple times, leading to her filing police complaints.

The prosecution also presented evidence that after stabbing Raisa, Tausif emerged from the house holding the knife and with bloodstained clothes. He then threatened Raisa’s tenant for paying her rent.

The Sessions Judge said, “The dispute of rooms occupied by Raisa is the motive of the accused to kill her, which is proved through the evidence of prosecution witnesses.”