Kids Beat & Trap Mom’s Ex in Septic Tank

Mother kills herself after troubled affair with jerk. Her children then punish the jerk creatively. It’s practically a screenplay.

Man sealed inside septic tank survives
24 Oct 2007, 0348 hrs | IST,Nitasha Natu,TNN

MUMBAI: Four hours inside a sealed septic tank are enough to kill the toughest survivors. But Rafique Sheikh, 34, lived to tell the tale.

The Andheri resident was beaten up with wooden rods and pushed into the septic tank of a public urinal by his assailants. Struggling for air, he banged on the lid till his hands were sore, hoping someone would help.

Miraculously enough, death remained at bay, and he was finally rescued by the police four excruciating hours later and rushed to Cooper Hospital.

Rafique’s attackers were the children of Gulbano Khan, a widow with whom he had had an extra-marital affair. The children, who had disapproved of the affair, were upset after their mother killed herself. Two of Gulbano’s sons, Akbar and Parvez, roped in two friends, Munawar Shah and Noor Mohd Khan, and accosted Rafique on Monday morning. They took him to Gamdevi Hills, beat him till they were sure he would not survive, and dumped him in the septic tank. They sealed the lid with cement.

However, their intentions were put paid to when an informant tipped off the D N Nagar police. “We received information around 1 pm that a man had been murdered and buried near a public urinal. We scoured the area but couldn’t find his body. Then we noticed a fresh coat of cement on a septic tank. We broke the lid open at 3.30 pm and found Rafique gasping for breath,” says inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi.

Rafique shudders when he recalls the nightmare. “I would stick my nose to a cavity in the lid and try to breathe in some fresh air every few minutes,” he said. “I was covered with faeces and it was disgusting. I thought every minute that I would die.”