Murder case: Her friends went to police the day she went missing, but cops shooed them, says MBBS student's family

Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 09 officers oversee a search operation for the MBBS student’s body, at Bandra Bandstand, on Saturday. Pic/Ashish Raje

The Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 09 has failed to retrieve the WhatsApp chat history of my daughter, which could play a crucial role in cracking the case," said the father of the MBBS student who went missing on November 29, 2021. The cops have claimed that the student was killed and her body was dumped near Bandra Bandstand by two arrested accused. Apart from seeking the chat history of the last 15 days prior to her disappearance, the woman's father also said that some of the students' friends had approached Nagpada police station to file a missing complaint, but were turned away.

Citing that neither her body nor her belongings have been found yet, the father claimed that the Mumbai police are claiming to have solved the case to hush up the matter. "Forget her body, the cops have not even recovered a single piece of her belongings including her cellphone. Why are the cops in a hurry to paint it as a murder case when they have no evidence till now? The Mumbai police have been trying to hush up the matter instead of focussing on solving the case. I have been asking them to get the WhatsApp chat history since the beginning, but they did not pay heed to my suggestion. The entire investigation is botched up, and yet the chief minister and home minister have not bothered to say anything," he told mid-day.

Meeth's Kitchen at Bandstand which the woman visited on the day she disappeared. File pic/Atul Kamble

‘Need chat history'

mid-day has learnt that during the initial days of the probe, crime branch officers created a duplicate sim of the missing 22-year-old's phone number to recover saved data. A source in the crime branch said, "The student's chat data was backed up only till November 15. We are yet to get the history from that day till she went missing."

Also Read: Murder case: ‘MBBS girl, accused met twice before murder'

Mentioning that the student, a Boisar resident, had left home saying she was going to her college in south Bombay to appear for an exam but got down at Bandra, the father said, "My biggest question is why my daughter got down at Bandra? If her chat history was obtained, we would be able to connect the dots. As per the CCTV footage from Bandra station, my daughter looked disoriented as she was hopping from one platform to another. She was next spotted at Bandra Bandstand around two hours later. I want to know what went wrong between her leaving home and reaching Bandra."

Cops carry out a search at Bandstand

Her family suspects that she might have chosen not to appear in her exams "to avoid meeting a male classmate who had been harassing her to meet during Diwali vacation", said her brother.

‘Cops turned us away'

While the Boisar woman's family filed a missing complaint with Boisar police, some of her classmates, including the friend mentioned by her family, had approached Nagpada police to file a complaint after she missed her exam and remained unreachable.

A photo of arrested accused Mithu Singh with the woman

"Around six of us had gone to Nagpada police station to register a missing complaint as our friend was unreachable. After we told the cops everything, they asked us to go to Boisar police station instead," said one of the friends, requesting anonymity.

Chat with a classmate

A day after the family registered a complaint, Boisar police on November 30, 2021 called her male classmate to Bandra police station for questioning. A source from Bandra police station said, "He showed his chat history with the missing student following which his phone was seized for further investigation."

Sources added that the woman had allegedly called a relative when she got down at Andheri station to change trains and later she called the friend on WhatsApp and talked for around 3 minutes.

After she got down at Bandra, the student had also chatted with the classmate for a few minutes till 1.39 pm and thereafter her phone was not reachable. mid-day has procured exclusive screenshots (see pics) of the chat which the woman's friend shared with the police.

As per the chat, the Boisar woman told her friend that she was on her way to the college campus for the exam and that she was stuck in traffic. Though she wished the friend luck for the exam and used Japanese phrases such as "aishiteru", which means ‘I love you', and "ki o tsukete", meaning ‘take care', interestingly she did not disclose her location.

‘She didn't tell him location'

The student's father believes she got down at Bandra station to avoid this male friend who had been trying to woo her. The student's brother said, "My sister was at Bandra station when she chatted with her male friend, but she did not tell him her correct location. She told him that she got down at Mumbai Central station and was going to the campus in a taxi."

"We want the police to find out what made my sister avoid her classmate. She chatted with him last but did not reveal her correct location. We strongly believe that my sister had been avoiding him and cops should connect these dots. They should question the classmate again," he told mid-day.

When contacted, the classmate said, "I have nothing to hide. The last time I met her was in October 2021. I told everything to the police."

‘No body yet'

The father, a journalist, told mid-day, "The cops have failed to get the details and are painting a case of kidnapping as that of murder. Their case, however, will fall flat before the court as they have not been able to get even a single piece of evidence to prove their claims."

He added, "Nobody from Mumbai police informed that they have added murder and destruction of evidence charges in the case. I learnt of this through the media."

Meanwhile, Parvati, sister of the main arrested accused Mithu Singh, said, "The father of the student is correct when he says it is not a murder. Where is her body then? The cops have falsely implicated my brother and friend in the case."

1.39 pm
Time on Nov 29, 2021 when the woman last sent a message to her classmate