Chandrabhan Sanap allegedly raped the Hyderabad-based techie girl – she was found murdered in January – police said today as they charged the arrested accused on three more counts.
Chandrabhan Sanap, a history-sheeter who once worked as a porter at Kurla station from where the 23-year-old techie went missing after arriving by train from Andhra Pradesh on early hours of January 5, was arrested four days ago for the murder.
“Sanap has now been charged with rape, robbery (he escaped with her baggage) and wrongful restraint. On the day of his arrest, Sanap was booked for murder and causing disappearance of evidence,” a Crime Branch officer said.
On the day of Sanap’s arrest, police had parried questions about sexual assault on the woman, a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
By slapping the rape charge, police have made it clear the victim was sexually assaulted.
The techie’s decomposed body was found on January 16 off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup, where she was allegedly taken by Sanap on a bike, which belonged to his friend Nandkishore Sahu.
Police zeroed in on Sanap after he was spotted with the software engineer in a CCTV footage at Kurla station.
The victim was employed as an assistant system engineer with IT major TCS in suburban Goregaon.
Meanwhile, investigators, who are probing whether Sahu had played any active role in the incident, said he would be made a witness.
“Sahu will be our star witness. We have also recovered the bike used in the crime,” said an officer.
