Nearly two months after Hyderabad techie Esther Anuhya went missing and was found murdered here, Mumbai Police today claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of a proclaimed offender, who allegedly made a failed attempt to rape the victim but later burnt her body partially.

Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap (28), who has several cases registered against him and working as a driver in Nashik, was apprehended from Kanjurmarg area in suburban Bhandup and placed under arrest, Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said.

The accused was produced before a local court which remanded him in police custody till March 15, he said.

Sanap is the same person who was spotted with Anuhya in a CCTV footage at the Kurla railway terminus on January 5, the day she went missing, police said.

The victim’s decomposed body was found off the Eastern Express Highway in Bhandup on January 16.
The 23-year-old victim, a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, was employed as assistant system engineer with IT major TCS at its office in suburban Goregaon.

After painstaking scrutiny of 36 CCTVs’ footages at the railway station and grilling of about 2,500 people, investigators stumbled upon Sanap, who was picked up last night.

“Sanap confessed to the crime and claimed his initial conspiracy was only intended to rob her. The victim’s trolley bag has been recovered,” Maria said.

Explaining the chain of events that led to the murder, he said Sanap, who consumed alcohol a day before the incident, had early on January 5 began scouting for victims at Kurla railway terminus and surrounding areas so that he could steal their bags or mobile phones.

“He spotted this girl (Anuhya) sitting at railway station alone and offered to drop her in a taxi to Andheri for Rs. 300.

Sanap then took her to the taxi stand where the victim found that he had a two-wheeler and not the cab,” Maria said.

Rabia Khan, mother of late actor Jiah Khan, has moved the Bombay High Court once again alleging that her daughter was murdered and had not committed suicide and sought transfer of probe to a Special Investigating Team.

The petition would come up for hearing in due course, her lawyer Dinesh Tiwari said.
In October 2013, Rabia had filed a petition seeking CBI probe but did not press for it as the High Court had asked police to record her statement and probe as if it was a case of murder. The police had probed on these lines and filed a chargesheet saying it was a suicide case and charged actor Suraj Pancholi, Jiah’s boyfriend, for abetment of suicide.

At a press conference, Rabia alleged that she was threatened by a man on February 25 who met her at her house and asked her to withdraw case against the accused. She promptly reported this to Police Commissioner through e-mail.

In her petition filed recently, 53-year-old Rabia had cited circumstances which point out that Jiah was allegedly killed and had not committed suicide, as stated in charge sheet. She has blamed Suraj for her daughter’s death.

Rabia said she had carried out a sting operation of a few witnesses who revealed in an audio recording that they had not told the police what had been recorded in their statements, thereby doubting the police version that Jiah had committed suicide.

The petitioner has sought investigations by SIT under the supervision of the High Court and direction so as to allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA, to assist the Indian investigating agency in the ongoing probe.

Rabia, a British citizen, has urged the High Court to direct the Juhu police to give her a copy of histopathology report, a copy of videography held during post mortem, copies of SMS exchanged between Suraj and Jiah and a copy of the call details record of Suraj and his father Aditya Pancholi.
Jiah’s mother has also prayed for a direction to the police to provide her with a copy of transcripts of the BBM (Blackberry Messenger services) chat between Suraj and Jiah, copies of details of mobile tower location and allow exhuming Jiah’s body so as to conduct more forensic examinations.
She prayed that police may be directed to book Suraj Pancholi with additional charges under IPC including 302 (murder), 323 (voluntary causing grievous hurt) and 376 (rape).

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday announced the name of Suresh Dhas, the minister of state for revenue, to contest the Beed parliamentary constituency against senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Nationalist Congress Party president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and senior leaders at the party office here.

The party is yet to announce candidates for Maval, Hatkanangale and Hingoli seats.

Party sources said the decision on Hatkanangale was pending because the NCP was persuading minister Jayant Patil to contest against Raju Shetti, who has now tied-up with the Sena-BJP alliance.

Hingoli may be swapped with Congress for Raigad seat. NCP is likely field Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare from Raigad if it gets the seat, sources said.

Party workers are of the view that if the NCP parts with Hingoli, it might lose base in Marathwada. However, it is up to the leaders to decide, sources said.

Congress has not been able to wrest the seat from Shiv Sena which was once a bastion of Congress and former chief minister AR Antulay.

NCP is also yet to declare candidate for Maval.

The Congress is likely to declare its first list after March 13.

An early probe has revealed that the fire on board navy submarine INS Sindhuratna, which killed two officers, was due to faulty cables, and not expired batteries that had not been replaced, sources today said.

The cables in the third compartment of the vessel caught fire, sources said.

The two officers died saving their comrades from the fire that broke out on the submarine early Wednesday. They were reportedly trapped when a hatch slammed shut. Seven sailors were injured.

There was speculation that the vessel’s batteries had not been replaced as the contract had not been finalized on time. Sources today said the contract was pending but the batteries were not the cause of the fire.

The battery was, in fact, borrowed from another submarine which is under refit. Sources say the battery had about 75 cycles to go and not beyond use.

Investigations are still on into the Sindhuratna fire and other accidents involving Kilo Class submarines of the Navy in the last seven months, they said.

After the Sindhuratna fire, Admiral DK Joshi resigned as Navy Chief taking responsibility for the accidents on his watch.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be in Maharashtra on a two-day tour from March 5 and is scheduled to spend a day in Mumbai interacting with voters.

Rahul will first interact with engineering and other degree course students at Shirpur in tribal Dhule district on March 5, MPCC spokesperson Sachin Sawant said in Mumbai.

In the afternoon, he will address a public rally at Aurangabad, after which he will interact with people on the Dhule-Shirpur road.

On March 6, the Congress leader will interact with fishermen at Versova, after which he will address a public rally at Sonale village, Bhiwandi bypass, in Thane district.

AICC General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra affairs Mohan Prakash, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and MPCC president Manikrao Thakre will accompany Rahul during the tour.

Ruling Congress-NCP coalition in Maharashtra will be contesting the Lok Sabha polls with the same 26:22 seat-sharing formula adopted during the last elections, with Congress contesting 26 of the total 48 LS seats in the state.

There are 17 Congress members from the state in the outgoing Lok Sabha while NCP has eight.