Lieutenant John MacLean Saegert, an officer in the British Army’s Engineers, Sappers and Miners, and his friends, Colonel C.E. Vickery, and lieutenants Francis Batley and Maxwell Stephen had played golf at the Willingdon Sports Club near Mahalaxmi Race Course.

At around 7.30 p.m., they left the club to visit the Taj Mahal Hotel at Apollo Bunder. On their way to the hotel, Saegert, who was driving and was unfamiliar with the area, arrived at Kemps Corner and took a wrong turn, driving up Malabar Hill via Gibbs Road instead of taking the lower Hughes Road to their intended destination.

When they reached the top of the Malabar hill, they saw two other cars on the right side of the road. When they were around thirty yards away, the European officers saw some men get down from the car in the front, followed by flashes of a pistol and then loud screams from the second car.

On hearing the screams, Saegert stopped the car. The officers, who were unarmed and in civilian clothes, got out and rushed towards them. Three men were threatening a woman with knives. The woman, who was Mumtaz, had already been injured on the forehead and was being dragged out of the car

Despite being unarmed and outnumbered, the Army men put up a fight straight out of a Bollywood flick. Saegert was shot at and stabbed by the assailants multiple times as he tried to fight them off. Lieutenant Batley attacked the shooters with a golf club, which was the only weapon available to the officers in the melee. Batley was also fired at by an assailant, but escaped unhurt. The army men overpowered an assailant, who was armed with a pistol and jack-knife and was grappling with Saegert. As residents of the neighbourhood appeared on the scene, the other attackers fled.

Bawla succumbed to his injuries at the J.J. Hospital. Bawla had a fortune of Rs 40 lakh. He willed it to his widowed mother Rukhiabai in his dying declaration, leaving Mumtaz Rs 1 lakh, which was a princely sum in those days.

The crime sent ripples across the country as Bawla was one of the leading public men of the day. The Bawla murder case was also mentioned in the British Parliament. The European officers were lauded for their bravery.

Just a day after the attempted abduction of Mumtaz Begum and murder of Abdul Kadar Bawla, the Bombay City Police had realized this was not just another street crime or holdup. Patrick Kelly (later Sir), commissioner of police, Bombay wrote to the secretary, Government of Bombay, Home Department, about evidence pointing to a conspiracy being hatched or instigated in one of India’s most prominent princely states.

Kelly, who was one of Bombay’s longest-serving police commissioners, said the girl Mumtaz ‘was in the keeping of the Maharaja of Indore for a few years’. Mumtaz had left the royal in April 1924, and had been ‘kept’ by Bawla

Kelly said that the inspector general of police, Indore, sent his assistant to him around two months ago, with a request for copies of certain statements recorded by the Bombay police in an enquiry once made by them regarding Mumtaz. The commissioner added that he had refused to supply the copies and that any demand for papers of this sort should be made by the political agent of Indore to the Government of Bombay

A short while ago, Mumtaz’s sister had written to her from Amritsar that the Indore authorities were collecting wrestlers to abduct her to Indore. Bawla himself was said to have received threatening letters.

Investigations revealed that Shafi Ahmed Nabi Ahmed, who had been nabbed by the European army officers at Malabar Hill, was a risaldar in the Indore Mounted Police. Initially, he had denied his guilt and claimed to be an innocent pedestrian proceeding on his way when he was caught in the fray.

But the most daunting challenge for the Bombay police team was that although the crime had taken place in British Indian territory, the conspiracy was hatched in Indore. However, the investigators overcame this hurdle by their dexterity. Despite the odds stacked against them, the investigation by the Bombay police unearthed that most of the suspects on their radar were senior officials of the Indore durbar

Eventually, they arrested Pushpasheel Balwantrao Ponde (twenty-three), a Mankari or court dignitary from Indore; Captain Shamrao Rewaji Dighe (twenty-eight) from the Indore State Air Force; Akbarshah Mahomedshah (twenty-three), huzrya (valet) in the household department, Indore; Mumtaz Mahomed Syed Mahomed (twenty-five), sub-inspector, CID, Indore; Karamatkhan Nizamatkhan (twenty-eight), pay sergeant, Holkar mounted escort, Indore; Abdul Latif Moyuddin (twenty-five), motor driver, Indore; and Bahadurshah Mahomedshah (twenty), motor driver, Indore. It was believed that they were involved in the shooting. Later, Major General Sardar ‘Dilerjang’ Anandrao Gangaram Phanse, aged thirty-two, the adjutant-general of the Indore State Forces was also arrested. The Bawla murder case is considered to be a landmark investigation in the history of the #MumbaiPolice.

Mumtaz was born in 1903 in a family of Punjabi Muslim courtesans. Her grandmother Karimbibi was said to be in the harem of Maharaja Ranjitsinh of Punjab. In 1911-12, Mumtaz’s mother Wazir Begum took her to Indore and the mother-daughter duo performed for the rich and famous in the town. Soon, they came in touch with Shankarrao Gawde, the major domo of Maharaja Tukojirao-III. Soon, Mumtaz became the Maharaja’s mistress. Mumtaz was famed for her beauty. As the author K.L. Gauba says "In her own class, it was said, Mumtaz was without a peer."

In April 1919, Mumtaz and her mother travelled with the Holkar family to Bombay. Tukojirao-III is said to have offered to marry Mumtaz by having her convert to Hinduism. However, this offer was rebuffed. The next day, Mumtaz was taken away from her mother on the pretext of watching a movie and was sent to Indore instead without her mother’s knowledge or consent.

Wazir Begum lodged a complaint about her daughter’s abduction with the Bombay Police, but the case was eventually dropped as there was no documentary evidence about Mumtaz being a minor. Mumtaz stayed on in Indore with a status equal to the two Maharanis and was also known as Kamalabai. In 1924, a girl was born to Mumtaz in Indore. The nurses claimed that the child had died later. Mumtaz alleged that the child had been killed by the nurses.

Finally, Mumtaz, her mother and step-father Mahomed Ali fled the custody of the officials of the Indore durbar as they were heading to Mussorie from Bhanpura. They finally arrived in Bombay where those linked to the Indore durbar are said to have made an attempt to restore her to the princely state. Mumtaz however had a fortuitous escape. She began performing again in Bombay. It was then that she came in touch with Bawla and became his mistress. After a tiff with her parents, Mumtaz moved in with Bawla and began staying with his family at their sea-facing residence near the Girgaum Chowpatty.  Mumtaz was finally putting the turbulence of the past behind her and settling down with Bawla when the shots rang out on that fateful day on Malabar Hill.