Mumbai: Ten days after a loader working at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus was arrested in connection with the murder of a 12-year-old boy, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase last month, the police investigation has raised doubts about his involvement in the offence.
The suitcase was found abandoned near the station’s parcel counter on January 7, and the Tilak Nagar police had initiated investigations into the matter. The loader, Ramesh Sakar, was traced to Madhya Pradesh and arrested on January 30 after CCTV footage from station cameras showed him carrying the suitcase with the body.
However, since his arrest, police have not been able to find any evidence against him, and subsequent investigations have given rise to more questions than answers. According to sources, when the police analysed footage from other cameras at LTT and nearby locations, they saw Sakat walking towards LTT with a small cloth bag on the morning of January 7.
“We also made inquiries with other loaders who, like Sakat, work at LTT on a daily wage basis. They told us that he always carried the cloth bag to work, which contained his lunch and other essentials,” an officer with Tilak Nagar police station said. He added that Sakat’s colleagues also confirmed that he came to work on January 7 as usual, with only the cloth bag.
Another officer said apart from the camera which shows Sakat carrying the suitcase to the spot where it was later found, he has not been captured by other cameras with the suitcase in his possession. “During interrogation, Sakat claimed he had seen the suitcase lying unattended and had picked it up to see if he could find anything of value in it. However, on finding a body, he abandoned it near the parcel counter and later fled to Madhya Pradesh, where he hails from.”
With Sakat sticking to his story after 10 days of interrogation, the police are considering subjecting him to a lie detector test, said officers.
