Missing MBBS student case: What we know so far

The Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 09 which is probing the alleged murder of a 22yearold medical student who went missing from Bandra Bandstand in November 2021 is yet to find any hard evidence to confirm her death The cops have also made two arrests in the case in January this year without any direct evidence against the accused and added murder charges to the kidnapping case In view of this midday delved into the course of investigation so far to find out why the accused both lifeguards were not arrested earlier and what led to their arrest nowMumbai police records show that they carried out the initial 18 days of investigation after the Boisar police which registered a missing report on November 29 2021 based on a complaint filed by the womanrsquos family found that the last location of the student was in Bandra Boisar police filed a zero FIR with charges of kidnapping and transferred it to the Bandra policeCops search the rocks near Bandstand BandraBandra police officers had also suspected Mithu Singh the main accused but they allegedly did not take steps to locate the victim apart from interrogating Singh Meanwhile Singhrsquos family members alleged that the cops tortured him They had also complained to the human rights commission in this regardA month after the first complaint was filed the case was transferred to Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 09 headed by Senior Inspector Sanjay Khatale on December 29 SI Khatale still heads the team and monitors the caseAlso Read MBBS student case lsquoProve to me that my daughter is deadrsquoInitial probe by crime branchThe Unit 09 team found several pieces of circumstantial evidence and the strongest one was the selfie of the woman with Singh before she disappeared The accused had told the cops that the student had asked him to leave after taking the photo saying that a male friend was on his way The cops however did not find any evidence of any of her friends visiting Bandstand on that daySingh who initially helped the cops stopped cooperating after the cops started interrogating him In view of this the crime branch team got the necessary permissions to conduct narco analysis brain mapping and lie detection tests In a major setback nothing came out of these tests and Singh was let goA crime branch officer who was part of that team said ldquoWe did not arrest him because we did not have sufficient evidence against him at that time We however never gave him a clean chit and continued with our proberdquoThe team at that time also found some witnesses who had noticed suspicious behaviour on the part of Singh and his friend Abdul Jabbar Ansari the other arrested accused in the case on the night of the incident As this was not sufficient SI Khatale decided not to arrest him at that timeWhat cops missedBoth the crime branch team and the Bandra police did not carry out search operations inside the sea during the initial days of investigation This despite having input that Singh had killed the student and dumped her body near the rocks at BandstandThough the probe continued there were some changes in the investigating team around NovemberDecember of 2022 It was after this that cops found some more witnessesRecent probe findingsSources said that a team of officers was assigned to keep tabs on the locality and scan CCTV footage from the area It was during this that cops found five witnesses including one who had also recorded a statement with the previous teamThis time the witnesses not only talked about suspicious behaviour of the two accused but also added that Ansari had allegedly stayed back at Singhrsquos eatery Meethrsquos Kitchen that night despite his home being just a minute awayAnother witness claimed that he had found the identity card of the student a few days after the Bandra cops started their probe The witness also claimed when he shared a photo of the card with a family member of the accused he was told to throw it and delete the photo from his phoneYet another witness told the police that he had seen Singh rush towards the Arabian Sea with a life jacket and a buoy ring that nightAll of the statements were recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the magistrate and Singh was arrested The accused while in custody also confessed to killing the student following which the crime branch added murder charges in the caseThe investigating team also learnt that Singh who had claimed that he had not met her before crossed paths with the woman twice in October and three times on November 29 The cops also suspected him as he had dialled the womanrsquos number 15 times that night When asked about it Singh told the cops that he was trying to locate her as she disappeared from Bandstand after 3 am Crime branch officers are of the opinion that this was Singhrsquos attempt at creating an alibi after killing the studentMissing linksAsked why they did not arrest Singh initially an officer of the previous team pointed at the lack of any strong evidence to confirm her death ldquoNone of her belongings were found and the forensic team did not find anything to confirm that she was deadrdquo the cop saidThis has not changed even now as the current investigating team is also looking for evidence They are carrying out searches in the sea to find her remains but the attempts so far have not yielded any result Efforts are still on to locate the womanrsquos body The crime branch has also given nod to carry out a hydrographic survey of the sea near Bandstand for the sameThe investigators as of now only have strong circumstantial evidence and witness statements as Singhrsquos confession is not admissible before the court of law29 DecDay in 2021 when the case was transferred to crime branch unit 09