The Mumbai police filed a charge-sheet in the rape and murder case of a 23-year-old Hyderabad-based software engineer whose semi-decomposed body was found off the Eastern Express Highway on January 16.
In March, the police had arrested a Nashik resident, Chandrabhan Sanap, for the crime. The police had booked him on the charges of rape, destruction of evidence and murder.
The charge-sheet that runs into 542 pages includes the statements of 76 witnesses, including the accused associate, Nandakishore Sahu, from whom he "borrowed" the bike which was used in the crime.
The case had hit the headlines after her family claimed that the police had not taken their case seriously and refused to register a ‘missing’ complaint immediately. The delay, they claimed, had proved fatal. The Mumbai police had come under intense pressure to solve the case but had been unable to make a breakthrough.
In December last year, the victim, who hailed from Machilipatnam in Krishna district of 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 morning from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT).
While the forensic evidence is said to be inconclusive in the case, the police have relied heavily on circumstantial evidence in an attempt to nail the accused.
