Ghost stalks Govandi residents’ dreams

In a similar dream, she visited another friend, Anjum. Yet another school teacher, Sayed Nusrat recounts: "About a couple of days ago, I saw a woman in my dream dressed in a burkha, I did not recognise her though. She introduced herself as Naseem and narrated the circumstances of her death." Thereafter, she reiterated that she was buried without a proper funeral. "I wish I had been given a bath before the funeral," she is believed to have said. At this point, Nusrat woke up from the dream in cold sweat. She has not slept soundly since then.

Thirty-five-year-old Naseem Bano’s decomposed corpse was found bundled in a jute bag and dumped in a septic tank of the public lavatory in Plot No 16 of Lotus Colony, Govandi, on April 9 this year.

She was apparently gagged and later strangulated to death. A teacher by profession, she was reported missing weeks before her death. At the time of her death, she was still draped in a burkha and carried a handbag. She was buried without ritual ablutions since her flesh was found to dropping off her bones.

Shabana says that Naseem has been appearing in the dreams of many of her friends and relatives regularly, pleading them to exhume and wash her. Samar Aara, a housewife from the Lotus Colony, says after she saw Naseem in her dream, her mouth went dry with fright. "Even as I got up from my sleep, I heard a knock on my door," she recalls.

Ironically though, Naseem Bano did not appear in the dreams of any of her close relatives. Her mother, Zubeda Bano is ailing and cannot speak coherently, while her sister, Shahnaz Bano, does not remember seeing her in her dreams.

However, the local community priest, Imamsaheb Shakeel Ahmed Razvi of the Noorani Masjid does not dismiss such an occurrence. Says he: "Our texts reveal that the ruh (spirit) is allowed to visit its relatives and friends when in need of Isaale-sawab (good deeds) to be sent to them."

Razvi further states that a rumour of Naseem Bano’s ghost on the prowl has been doing the rounds for a while.

The residents of Plot No 15 and 16 have been afraid to visit the lavatory after dark, for it is said that Naseem’s spirit was looking for her killers. The Shivaji Nagar police have not been able to crack this murder mystery yet. "The case is still undetected," confirmed senior police inspector, Shankar Mamilwad.