A day after Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde directed the Maharashtra government to expedite its probe into the alleged rape and murder of a 23-year-old software engineer whose semi decomposed body was found in the swamps off the Eastern Express Highway on January 10, Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh on Saturday claimed that the case would be cracked in the next two days.
“We have detained four autorickshaw and taxi drivers and they have been subjected to DNA tests. We are confident of cracking the case in a day or two,” Mr. Singh told reporters on Saturday.
No concrete lead?
However, highly placed police sources told The Hindu that they were still groping in the dark and did not have any concrete lead in the case.
In December last year, the victim, who hailed from Machilipatnam in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, had gone to her hometown to celebrate Christmas with her family. She took a train back to Mumbai on January 4 but went missing on January 5. The police say that after alighting at the Lokamanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) Station, the woman was allegedly raped and killed.
The victim was employed with TCS in Goregoan, a western suburb of Mumbai. She had moved to Mumbai in August 2012 and was residing at Andheri in western suburban Mumbai.
The police so far has have questioned over 100 autorickshaw and taxi drivers.
“The angle of the involvement of a cab or autorickshaw driver is still the strongest one but we haven't been able to make any headway,” sources told The Hindu.
While the CCTV footage of the LTT station has not yielded any result, the police are now going through footage from CCTVs between LTT and the spot where the body was found.
Forensic analysis
The police also have sent the victim’s t-shirt for forensic analysis.
“It will confirm whether she was raped and murdered at the same spot or the two offences took place at different locations,” the sources added.
Reacting strongly against the statement made by the Police Commissioner, the father of the victim said that he had no faith in the Mumbai police and wanted the case to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
