Mumbai:
The Malwani police have arrested a 22-year-old girl who leveraged her good looks and charm to marry and divorce three men in the last six months, leaving them penniless in the process. Deepika Saha alias Mehek Shaikh alias Neha looted cash and jewellery from her husbands' houses and spent the money on her boyfriend, who is already married. Saha has a bachelor's degree in commerce and is a resident of Khadodi village at Malad (West).
Saha's latest marriage was with Shamim Sheikh, an auto driver who resides in the area. Sheikh and Saha decided to get married after a 10-day affair but Saha realised soon after that Sheikh did not have the means to support her lavish lifestyle. The couple fought constantly and decided to go in for a divorce on May 6, barely 15 days after their wedding.
Sheikh stormed out of the house after the last fight and Saha decided to take advantage of his absence. She went to a neighbour's house, said she had been kicked out of their house by her husband and needed a place to spend the night. "The neighbour, Mohamm-ed Jawed Siddique Memon, took pity on her and gave her the keys to the house of his sister, Shabina Ali, who had gone to her village with her family," said Inspector Ashok Ugle of the Malwani police station.
Memon called up Shaikh after an hour to confront him for ill-treating Saha, but was told that they were divorced. He rushed to his sister's house to find the door open and Saha missing. He did not, however, suspect that Saha had stolen anything from the house. But, when Shabina returned on May 25, she found cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.3 lakh missing from her locker. She filed a complaint against Saha with the Malwani police the next day.
Ugle said that on investigating Saha's background, they found that she had married two men, besides Sheikh, in the past six months and had looted them as well. Sheikh's interrogation revealed that Saha had a boyfriend named Misam Shaikh, who is also a resident of Malwani. "We found out that Saha used to marry men and then divorce them after looting their houses. She spent all the money on her boyfriend, who is already married" added Ugle.
When Misam was detained, he told the police that Saha and he had holidayed in Goa for a week with the money from the last robbery. They had even gone to Shirdi to shop for Misam. Seeking to lay a trap, the police asked Misam to call Saha and ask her to meet him. She was finally arrested on May 26.
Sources in the Malwani police said Saha attempted to escape from the police station during her questioning. She tried to climb down a pipe on the pretext of going to the bathroom and even telephoned Shabina to boast of her escape. "She was lucky that she did not fall down and die while making the escape attempt. What makes the thing even more mysterious is that she did not even try to leave the police station premises. We found her sitting in our temple," said a police officer on condition of anonymity. "We have recovered the jewellery from Saha, but she had spent the cash. She has been remanded to police custody till Monday," he added.