A year after Meerut horror, Maharashtra woman held in blue drum-styled murder of lover in Thane

AAdult female was arrested in Mumbra country of Maharashtra's Thane territorial dominion for allegedly cleanup her lover with the facilitate of her relative.The woman reportedly murdered her partner and stuffed his body in a blue drum before throwing it in a drain ('nullah'), in uncanny resemblance to the sensational Meerut murder which took place in March, 2025, PTI news agency reported.The Thane police on Friday said it had solved the case after cops arrested the accused woman, who is a nurse by profession. This comes more than a month after the nurse's partner, a 24-year-old civil engineer, was found murdered – his body stuffed in a blue drum and thrown in the drain in Vasai in Palghar district. Along with the nurse, her brother was also held for aiding her in the murder.Also Read | Main accused in Virar RTI activist murder case arrested in DahanuFailed extortion bid led to murder: PoliceAccording to police, the murder was the result of a failed extortion bid. The nurse, identified as Mehjabin Sheikh, had allegedly loaned the deceased, Arbaz Khan, some money.“With the intention of extorting money from him, the accused, comprising Mehjabin and her kin, lured him to a secluded spot in Vasai,” PTI cited an official as saying. The two accused then tied Khan's hands and legs, and beat him to death with PVC pipes, according to the official.The case came to light after Khan, who worked at a private company in Dombivali, went missing on April 3 after he had left for Dadar in Mumbai to collect a work-related payment.“…His father lodged a complaint with police. The analysis of his call records led to nurse Mehjabin Sheikh, with whom he was in a relationship,” the official said, according to PTI.After an analysis was carried out of Khan's mobile phone, his last location was traced to Vasai. It was found that Mehjabin was also in the same area around that time. The victim's body was discovered in a decomposed stateat Virar Phata along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway on April 5, the official said.Following this, Mehjabin and her brother Tariq Sheikh were arrested on May 7. Her husband Hassan and another associate, Mujazzam Talib Khan, are absconding, Mumbra police station senior inspector Anil Shinde told PTI.Also Read | Minor girl rape and murder: Ex-Maharashtra home minister demands capital punishment for accusedWhat was the Meerut ‘blue drum’ case?In the Meerut case, Saurabh Rajput, a merchant navy personnel, was killed by his wife and her lover Sahil Shukla. His body was dismembered and stuffed in a blue drum that was sealed with concrete.The accused allegedly drugged Rajput before murdering him, and fled to Himachal Pradesh after the killing. Further investigations into the case revealed that Muskan had allegedly been planning murder since November 2023.The police said Saurabh was allegedly killed as he was “an obstacle in” Muskan and Sahil's love affair. Both were arrested on March 18, 2025. Muskan had reportedly confessed to killing her husband before her family before she was arrested.