A day after a 30-year-old woman and her 3-year-old daughter were found dead in their Mahim home, Shahu Nagar police arrested the woman’s husband and his girlfriend on Friday for murder. Ilyas Sayed, 38, and Afreen Sayed, 22, will be produced before a local court on Saturday.

According to Shahu Nagar police officers, Ilyas and Afreen are cousins and have been in a relationship for a few years. Ilyas married Tehsin Sayed, 30, six years ago and had two daughters with her. On Thursday morning, Tehseen dropped their elder daughter Samara to school, at around 8am. After she came home, Illyas slit Tehsin and his three-year-old daughter Alia’s throats, and left the flat. Later, Afreen – disguised in a burkha, niqab and gloves – came to the flat and used cooking oil to burn the bodies and destroy evidence. The police said Ilyas and Afreen confessed during interrogation.

Additional commissioner of police Ravindra Shishve said, “To ensure the crime looked like a case of suicide, Afreen used Tehsin’s mobile phone and sent him [Ilyas] a text saying ‘Hum ja rahe hai humesha ke liye, I love you’. Ilyas and Tehsin used to have fights on a regular basis because of Afreen, which could be one of the prime reasons behind the crime.”

The fire was reported at 11.30am on Thursday and when the police reached the Sayed residence, they found Tehsin and Alia’s partially-burnt bodies, with their throats slashed.

While checking CCTV footage from the area around the building, the police noticed a burkha-clad woman come in a taxi to the building at around 10:35am and leave at 11:10am on Thursday. The police traced the taxi and the driver led them to Afreen. “To destroy the evidence, Afreen reached the scene and …took the staircase to get out of the building, ensuring no one sees her. She threw her burkha near Five Gardens and got back home,” said a police officer familiar with the case.

Requesting anonymity, a relative of Ilyas’s said, “We didn’t get a chance to talk with Ilyas, but whatever happened has really made an impact on the family. We believe the police and the only thing we can do is be patient.”

First Published: Feb 02, 2019 01:00 IST