The Government Railway Police (GRP) have got a lead in the case of murder of the 23-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh whose semi-decomposed body was found in a swamp off the Eastern Express Highway on January 16. CCTV footage procured from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai, from where she went missing on the morning of January 5 shows her with a middle-aged man.
The man, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, is in a white-collared half-sleeve T-shirt and blue jeans. He is in the 38-42 age group, is well built and bald and has a moustache. He is seen dragging the victim’s trolley bag, while she is talking on the phone, the police said.
Reconstruction
Through the CCTV footage, the police have been able to reconstruct what happened at the terminus between 4.55 a.m. and 5.15 a.m. on the day of murder. The police say the train reached Mumbai at 4.55 a.m. and the victim alighted on platform number 3. After that, she is seen going towards the common waiting room looking for someone. She is then seen between platforms 4 and 5. She reaches this spot by 5.10 a.m. and meets the person.
In December, the victim had gone to her hometown of Machilipatnam in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh to celebrate Christmas with her family. The victim was employed with TCS at Goregaon, a western suburb of Mumbai. She had moved to Mumbai in August 2012 and had been living at Andheri, a western suburb.
Sources say her family members have recognised her in the footage but have not been able to identify the man. A joint team of the Mumbai Crime Branch and the Railway police is in Hyderabad looking for him. Teams in Mumbai have questioned her colleagues and representatives of her company, co-passengers and even fleet drivers. Over 40 people were questioned on Friday.
