Carol's disappearance: Top cop orders probe into Santacruz police

Mumbais Commissioner of Police CP Hemant Nagrale has ordered an enquiry into Santacruz policersquos alleged botchedup investigation of a missing person complaint after the matter was highlighted by midday The case pertains to Vile Parle resident Pinky Misquitta alias Carol whose decomposed body was found in Palghar 10 days after she went missing On Saturday a frontpage report in this paper quoted her mother who alleged that the officers acted only two days after the complaint was madeJoint CP Law and Order Vishwas NangrePatil told midday ldquoWe have initiated a probe based on your report published on Saturday I will have to check its statusrdquoHe added ldquoOn a piece of paper with the midday newspaper cutting the CP wrote lsquocheck who has done thishellip enquire and reportrsquo and it was sent to additional CP West region The zonal DCP is conducting the enquiryrdquoMissing from Jan 24Carolrsquos mother Catherine Misquitta and social activist Anita Shetty have alleged that Santacruz police kept turning them away for the first 48 hours since she went missing on January 24 They were busy launching the Nirbhaya helpline number they said adding that they registered a missing person complaint only on January 26Carolrsquos mother Catherine left along with her sister Victoria PereiraldquoThey also told us that they are occupied in the preparation for a blood donation camp and the flag hoisting programme on Republic Dayrdquo said ShettyCatherine had pleaded with Santacruz police to question Carolrsquos boyfriend Zico Misquitta about her whereabouts Zico was called to the police station but was let go 10 minutes later after he told officers that he broke up with Carol a fortnight ago ldquoHer mother kept saying that their relationship was not over and that she had heard Carol candidly talking to Zico on the phone the day she went missingrdquo Shetty saidldquoBesides we also showed police Zicorsquos banking transaction He had sent R320 to Carol on January 24 the night she went missing Police instead scolded us and said lsquoyour daughter has many male friends why are you only naming Zicorsquordquo she recalledIt was the Palghar police that found the body on February 3 and arrested Zico and his alleged accomplice Kumar Babu DevendranldquoWhenever we visited Santacruz police station we would get only one response lsquoshe will come backrsquo But they did nothing to track her mobile phone location to find out her whereaboutsrdquo Shetty said ldquoThey swung into action only after I messaged senior police officers Senior Inspector D Ganore called us to know about the matter and the socalled investigating officer IO too Ganore enquired about Carolrsquos call detail record CDR and IO said he is yet to get itrdquoldquoWhen I told Ganore that eight precious days have passed but there is still no development in the investigation he replied lsquopeople return home even after 15 daysrsquordquo said ShettylsquoWe made the arrestrsquoIt was the Crime Branch officers who retrieved the CDR and located her last location in Palghar and they also called Zico for questioning Shetty saidA senior officer from Palghar police said ldquoIt is true that Zico was being questioned by Crime Branch in Bandra but we arrested him Had they investigated the missing person complaint properly it would have been solved in a few hoursrdquoThe senior Palghar police officer said ldquoCrime Branch officers learnt about the murder only after we approached them with the details of decomposed body and the details of her clothing It is not that they had cracked the caserdquolsquoZico had joined searchrsquoIn a bid to showcase his innocence in the sudden disappearance of Carol Zico had joined family to trace her said ShettyldquoCarolrsquos grandmother who lives in Kurla is ailing He Zico visited Kurla twice with Carolrsquos maternal uncle to look for her He also told us that he is open to assist police if they call him for questioning We did not know then that he had already killed Carolrdquo Shetty addedSources said after killing his girlfriend Zico returned to Vile Parle at 630am and sleptRequesting anonymity a senior IPS officer of Mumbai police said ldquoDuring our investigation we learnt that Carol was set to join a call centre on February 16 Also she called her mother on January 24 night saying she will return So as an investigating officer what will you do Naturally one will assume that she will returnrdquoldquoIn a missing complaint how will an investigator know that the boyfriend has killed her until and unless we get the CDR or other details Our investigations were underway when Palghar police came and took his Zico custodyrdquo said the officerHe added ldquoAll the allegations made by her Carolrsquos family are being cross verified We are also checking why there was an unusual delay in getting the CDRrdquoZonal DCP Manjunath Shinge said ldquoWe will verify all the facts and we will take appropriate action if there are any lapsesrdquo