Nearly 40 days of persistent detection led a Tilak Nagar officer to a child, who gave her vital clues that helped crack the murder of an unidentified man, whose body was found hanging by a tree in a Chembur garden in April. In the wee hours of April 19, the Tilak Nagar police received information about a dead body hanging by a tree in the garden near Holy Family School in Chembur. Police registered an accidental death report and the case was assigned to Sub-Inspector Pournima Hande.

Hande tried to establish the identity of the deceased, believed to be in his 30s, but in vain. “We checked all the missing reports and circulated the deceased’s picture, hoping it would reach his family, but nothing helped,” said a cop. Meanwhile, Hande along with other officers were consistently questioning people in the vicinity of the garden for some clue, as nothing was found on the clips of over 100 CCTV cameras they had examined.