Accused sought sexual favours from MBBS student: charge sheet

THE Mumbai Crime Branchs Unit 09 has submitted a charge sheet in connection with the murder of 21yearold MBBS student Sadichha Sane stating that the motive behind her killing was the denial of sexual favours that the accused Mitthu Singh expected from her According to the investigation Sane spent some time with Singh at Bandra Bandstand and they became friendly but when she refused his advances he pushed her on the rocks causing her to fall and sustain severe head injuries Instead of taking her to the hospital the accused allegedly dumped her body into the seaThe crime branch has submitted a 1750page charge sheet with approximately 100 witnesses statements of which four crucial ones were recorded under Section 164 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure CrPC which deals with the recording of confessions and statementsThe case relies on circumstantial evidence as the body of the deceased could not be found despite exhaustive efforts by the police The last seen theory under Section 106 of the Indian Evidence Act is being utilised placing the burden of proving their innocence on the accused midday was the first to report on this developmentIt has been established that Sane was not kidnapped and consequently the Crime Branch has removed Sections 364a kidnapping for ransom and 363 punishment for kidnapping of the Indian Penal Code IPC from the charge sheetThe woman had gone to Bandstand on her own accord and turned off her phone There she met the accused and became friendly with him and they even took selfies together Singh and his childhood friend Abdul Jabbar Ansari have been charged with murder and destruction of evidence under IPC Sections 302 and 201 respectivelyAccording to the crime branch the deceased had dinner at Singhrsquos eatery which was served to her at the rocks and both talked to each other Singh went back to her and later sat with her for some time The duo did not know each other but before this Sane had visited Bandstand and both had chatted briefly so they were somewhat familiar Thatrsquos the reason why the student trusted him and sat with him till late the police have claimedAccording to the accuseds confessional statement after taking the selfie the woman touched his beard softly and pulled his cheek and he attempted to get physical with her but she refused and both had heated arguments ldquoThis triggered him and he pushed her causing her to fall and sustain a head injury He then ran away but returned later to find Sane breathing but unconscious Instead of helping her he took her into the sea using a life jacket and buoy and dumped her body thererdquo an officer saidAlso readShraddha Walkar murder case Father seeks questioning of Aaftabs parentsThe charge sheet also states that Singh who was a lifeguard knew Bandstand inside out and was aware of areas where drowned bodies would not surface He dumped Sanes body in one such location as per his confession to the policeSingh also revealed that three women had drifted off into the sea in 2016 while two were rescued the body of the third girl was never found as she had drowned at the same location where he dumped Sanes body The police verified this information with the family of the girl who died in 2016 and found that her body was still not located Based on his revelations other pieces of evidence were collected and we have a strong case for conviction said a senior officer of the Mumbai Crime BranchAccording to officials the evidence suggests that the accused was with the victim until 345 am on November 29 2021 after which she went missingThe charge sheet presents several strong circumstantial pieces of evidence against the accusedSingh clicked two selfies with the deceased on November 29 2021 at around 235 am while they were sitting on rocks at Bandstand The victim appeared comfortable in the pictures which weakens the kidnapping theory Singh claimed that he left after the selfie was taken as she said her friend was coming to meet her However CCTV footage does not show anyone entering the area where the accused and Sane were sitting on the rocksAnsari the other accused slept in Singhs kitchen despite his house being just 50 metres awayThe next morning Singh went back to the area near the rocks where they had taken the selfies and clicked a picture of the surroundings The police suspect that he was checking to see if any of the victims belongings were left behind or if her body had washed ashoreTwo days after the incident the body of a man was found at Bandstand which made both accused nervous Witnesses in the case have revealed that the accused were discussing what would happen if the body turned out to be the victimsThere are also witnesses who overheard the accused having conversations about sex with the deceased Ansari allegedly asked Singh if he had sex with the victim or if he could join them and bring some bedsheetsSingh was awake all night and his phone was active He called Sanes number 11 times despite knowing that her phone was on airplane mode He also sent her a request on Instagram to create an alibi that he was also searching for her after she disappearedThe accused sold his newly purchased iPhone 13 in 2021 despite the Bandra police warning him not to do anything with the phone The phone was later recovered but nothing conclusive was found on it except for the pictures of the Bandstand that the accused had taken the day of the alleged murderrdquoSingh had gone to different spots at Bandstand including the area where he was last seen with the victim and took pictures He said that he usually took pictures of the sunrise but no pictures from any other day were found which raises suspicions an officer privy to the information saidSingh was also seen on a blurry CCTV footage heading towards the sea with a lifejacket and buoy which he could not explainThe identity card of Sane which was found at the bandstand was destroyed on Singhrsquos instructionStrong circumstantial evidence has surfaced during the course of the investigation and our efforts to locate the body will continue Based on these circumstances we believe that this is a fit case to secure a conviction before the court the officer addedThe charge sheet also states that the authorities took DNA samples from the body of an unknown woman found by the Trombay police in December 2022 The samples were sent to forensic experts to see if they match the DNA of Sanersquos father The report is still awaited Additionally the crime branch has taken DNA samples from over 100 unidentified bodies of women to compare them with the DNA of Sanes fatherThe caseOn November 29 2021 Sane a thirdyear MBBS student of Grant Medical College left her home in Virar at 930 am to appear for her preliminary exam at Byculla Instead of taking her exams she got off at Andheri and boarded another train getting down at Bandra at 1246 pm She then took an auto and reached Bandstand around 110 pm After leaving home she spoke to one of her relatives and since then there has been no activity on her phone as she turned it off or put it on flight modeAround 530 pm one of her classmates Sadaf called her family informing them that Sane had not appeared for her exams and her phone was switched off The family then approached the Boisar Police and filed a missing complaint and the Bandra police were informed Her father came to Bandra and he went to the Bandstand with local cops at around 2 am but they returned as the father said his daughter would not go to a place where couples get intimate in public However Sane was there at that time and she took a selfie at around 235 am If the local cops had searched the area she would have been alive todayInitially the case was registered as a kidnapping and the Bandra police handled the case for 18 days but found nothing Singhs family alleged custodial torture and filed a case with the Human Rights Commission The case was later transferred to Unit 09 of the Mumbai Crime Branch and they conducted narcoanalysis on Singh but the report remained inconclusiveOn January 12 Singh was arrested by Unit 09 for allegedly killing Sane and on January 13 Ansari was also arrested for helping him to destroy evidenceBased on the call records obtained by the police the two accused had made four phone calls to each other on November 29 between 3 am and 4 am At around 3 am on the same day Ansari had instructed the workers at the eatery to close early Later at around 345 am Singh was seen in a CCTV camera footage heading towards the rocks with a torch where he clicked four selfies with the deceasedThree important witnesses have overheard communication between the accused The first witness claimed to have overheard Ansari telling Singh on the day of the incident Bhai ladki ko expletive hellip chaddar lekar aau kya main Okay bhai ladki ke sath maza karo The second witness claimed that a few days after the incident he overheard both accused saying Jayenge to dono sath me jayenge aur bahar rahenge to sath me rahenge The third claimed to have overheard the accused talking about Sane after a male body was found at Bandstand a few days after the incident The accused allegedly said Achha hua ladke ka body mila Ladki ki hoti to hum dono andar jata