Yearender 2021: Top crime stories that shook Mumbai

Apart from many scandals involving the likes of Raj Kundra Aryan Khan and Anil Deshmukh Mumbai also witnessed misdeeds against women a rise in cybercrime and major drug busts Herersquos a look at the cases that shook the cityCrimes against womenKurla rapemurder case On November 27 a 20yearold girl was allegedly raped and murdered in Kurla and her body dumped on the 13th floor of a vacant building in the HDIL compound The victim was stabbed in the abdomen and chest at least 26 times and hit with a hammer in the skull The victim and accused were allegedly in a relationship and the former was insisting for marriage The man not ready to take a plunge yet hatched a plan with his friend to kill the victim The duo were arrested by the police on November 27Dombivli gang rape case In one of the most shocking incidents of the year a 15yearold girl from Dombivli was allegedly gangraped multiple times by 33 people at different locations including Dombivli Badlapur Murbad and Rabale between January 29 and September 22 The sexual assault began in January when the girls friend allegedly raped her and filmed the crime to blackmail her and rape again The other accused did the same The case came to light when the minor complained to her aunt Twentytwo of the 33 arrested were remanded to judicial custody by Kalyan sessions courtSakinaka rapemurder case On September 10 a 34yearold woman was raped and brutally murdered with an iron rod inside a tempo in Sakinaka The woman died during treatment the next day The accused and victim were known to each other and an argument over a financial dispute allegedly led to the assault The accused confessed to the crime and was arrested by the police The Mumbai Police filed a 346page chargesheet including statements from 77 witnesses along with medical forensic and circumstantial evidenceCybercrimeSextortion racket In February the Cyber Cell of Mumbai Crime Branch arrested three people froze 175 Facebook accounts and busted a massive lsquosextortionrsquo racket targeting politicians bureaucrats and celebrities The accounts used photographs of women to target people The cyber cell found that once the victim indulges in any sexual acts over video call while watching the pornographic clips the accused used to take screen grabs and threaten with it to extort moneyWomen duped through matrimonial sites In yet another classic case of online scam a Thane man was arrested for duping women of Rs 25 crore through matrimonial websites The accused identified as Prajit Keje used to cheat women on pretext of marrying them and seek money by making up fake storiesRape threats to Kohlirsquos daughter In November the Mumbai Cyber Cell arrested a person from Hyderabad for allegedly sending rape threats to Indian Test captain Virat Kohlis 10monthold daughter on Twitter The 23yearold was identified as Ramnagesh Akubathini an IIT graduateDrug bustsDrugs seized worth Rs 13 crore On December 14 NCB seized Amphetamine opium and Zolpidem tablets in varying quantities from different locations in suburban Andheri and South Mumbai and arrested an Ivorian national The collective value of the seizure is estimated at Rs 13 crore The seized drugs were to be smuggled to Australia New Zealand Maldives Dubai USA hidden in stethoscopes ties bicycle helmets ovens bangles food bagsHeroin worth Rs 249 crore seized On December 10 the Air Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai Customs seized 35 kg of heroin worth around Rs 249 crore and held two foreign nationals including a woman traveler at the International Airport The AIU had received a tipoff about an attempt to smuggle in heroin and a probe has been initiated in the caseZambian woman caught with heroin worth Rs 18 crore A Zambian national was arrested from the Mumbai international airport allegedly with 35 kg of heroin worth Rs 18 crore on September 24 The 33yearold was held from a flight that had arrived from Addis Ababa Ethiopia The contraband weighing 35 kg and worth Rs 18 crore was found in a cavity in her bag