A sessions court on Thursday convicted a man for killing a teenager in a road accident and dumping his body in Vashi creek. Additional sessions judge Dilip G Murumkar sentenced the accused, Simon Substrin (42), to ten years’ imprisonment in the absence of the body, which has remained untraceable since the incident in 2011. He was found guilty under various charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence
the victim’s mother, Shama Ahmad, said, “We are satisfied that justice has been served. However, we have lost all hope of ever seeing our child again.” Lawyer G A Khan, who was the ‘watching advocate’ in the case, said, “Even today if the family hears about some unidentified body being recovered, they rush there to see if it is their son.”
The victim Naseer Shaikh (17), a Mankhurd resident was pursuing a course in computer hardware maintainence and lived with his parents, Shakeel, a carpenter and Shama Ahmad, homemaker. On June 16, 2011, around 10am, Substrin, who was transporting schoolchildren in a van, came in from the wrong direction on Mandala Road in Trombay and rammed into Naseer.
Naseer sustained severe injuries and became unconsciousness. A crowd gathered at the scene and among them was a local, Badshah Shaikh, who becomes a crucial witness in the case. At the prodding of onlookers, Substrin put Naseer in his van and agreed to drive him to a hospital. However, in his confessional statement given to the magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the accused said that he was scared as the victim was dead and hence, instead of taking the victim to the hospital, dumped his body in Vashi creek.