02 March,2017 07:22 PM IST | | Suraj Ojha
Two weeks after report emerged that victim had been asked to create fake evidence after original garment was lost, the cops claimed to have found it in the police station
CCTV grabs of the assault on Ghag in December 2015
In a bizarre turn to the already absurd story of a victim being asked by the Sewri police to recreate evidence after losing it, the same police now claims to have found that lost bloodstained shirt.
Also read: Bloody mess! Sewri cops ask victim to create fake copy of lost evidence
And where was it? Apparently, it was misplaced when the police station was undergoing repair work.
mid-day had reported about 29-year-old Akash Ghag's dilemma after he was beaten up by local goons when they discovered he was
the whistleblower in an oil stealing racket being conducted just 100 feet from a police beat chowkie.
Lost and found
Ghag told mid-day, "On February 11, I received a call from the Sewri police station, telling me that they could not find my blood-stained shirt that they had collected as evidence and asked me to create fake evidence by submitting a new shirt with blood sprinkled on it."
However, after a couple weeks, he received an update. "On February 28, they again called and asked me to come to the police station. They then informed me that they had found the lost evidence and showed me the shirt, sealed in a khaki envelope," he added.
Senior police inspector, Sudhir Nagve, told mid-day, "As renovation of the police station was underway, all of the evidence was being kept safely in another location."
He added, "But after this allegation came to light, I told my staff to hunt for this âlost' evidence which they found in the police station itself."
Evidence mishandled?
Now, Ghag has alleged that despite the evidence being collected from him in 2015, it was not sent to the forensic laboratory as is necessary with evidence collected.
He claims he found out about it when the officer who called him, head constable Lande, informed him that the shirt was lost because only the CCTV footage had been sent forward to the lab.
However, inspector Nagve had denied even this charge and claimed instead, "This allegation is false.
We have done all legal formalities and required forensic tests. Only after that did we submit the chargesheet in the matter."
