In an important development in the Esther Anuhya murder case, Railway Police has stumbled upon a CCTV footage that showed the victim with a man after alighting the train at Kurla Railway Terminus from where she went missing, police claimed today.

Police suspect that the man, spotted with the 23-year-old female software engineer, could be behind her murder and attempts were on to identify him.

A team of railway police left to Andhra Pradesh to meet her parents and show the clipping, an officer said refusing to elaborate any further.

Groping in the dark, Mumbai police and Railway Police have questioned several auto rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, small-time criminals and drug addicts, and even detained four persons for a few days, though nothing concrete has been achieved.

“This is a very good lead in the case. We are hoping to crack the case soon,” said Shivaji Dhumal, Senior Inspector at Kurla Government Railway Police.

Police have so far failed to recover key evidence like the victim’s bag and laptop. The girl’s family, however, claim that the police was not doing enough to solve the case.

On January 16, Mumbai Police had found the burnt body of Anuhya eleven days after she went missing from Kurla Railway Terminus. The body was identified by her father S Prasad, a retired Professor of Andhra Pradesh University, police said.

The body of Anuhya, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, bearing burn injuries, was found in Kanjurmarg. Anuhya was employed with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court that it had already appointed a high-power committee to prepare a draft on constituting an authority, before whom victims of medical negligence can file complaints.

The committee is expected to submit its report soon and thereafter the state would take steps to constitute the authority to look into the cases filed by victims of medical negligence, government pleader Prajakta Shinde told a bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah.

The bench had asked the state on January 17 to form an authority to probe cases of medical negligence. Such a panel would hear the victims of medical negligence and recommend measures to take action against the accused, the judges said.

Under Section 7 of Maharashtra Medicare Service, Persons and Medicare Service Institution (MMSPMSI) Act, establishment of such an authority is mandatory. Hence, the HC asked the state to set up this committee as soon as possible.

The court had also directed Additional Home Secretary (AHS) and Director General of Police (DGP) to issue a circular within two weeks asking the police force to invoke provisions of MMSPMSI Act in cases of assault on doctors.

As the circular is still not distributed to police, the bench gave a stern warning to the State and noted that if such circular is not given to all the police stations in the State within two weeks, the additional home secretary and DGP would have to personally remain present on February 17.

The court was hearing a suo motu (on its own) petition alleging assault by three policemen on a doctor who had refused to attend a woman in labour pains in a government hospital in Solapur town in Maharashtra on December 31.

Following a court directive, the policemen, who had assaulted the doctor, were held under MMSPMSI on January 12.

The policemen were first booked under the IPC for bailable offences and granted bail. However, the court, after viewing CCTV footage of the incident, had directed the government to book the policemen under MMSPMSI Act, under which offences were cognisable and non-bailable.

The Solapur attack had led to a flash strike by 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra on January 2. The stir was called off after the policemen surrendered in a Solapur court. The accused policemen had tendered an unconditional apology in the high court through their lawyer for the attack.

The Bombay High Court restrained a numismatist (coin collector) from auctioning coins purchased by him and invoice in the name of Dinesh Mody Institute of Numismatics and Archaeology (DMINA).

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha was hearing a petition filed by another numismatist Farokh Todywalla, who claims to have sold a part of his coin collection to Dinesh Mody at a low price, some of which are on the block now.

Mody, in 2005, had donated over 7,500 coins to the Mumbai University to set up a museum at its suburban Kalina campus. Dinyar Madon, counsel for the petitioner, argued that Mody continued to purchase several coins and invoiced them in the name of the museum in order to avoid 10-15 per cent service tax.

According to the petition, Mody is allegedly auctioning some of these coins on February 2 under a series named ‘The Wardhaman Collection of Indian Coins- Part I’. 409 coins have been put up for auction.

“If the coins are in the name of the museum, then that does not amount to his (Mody’s) private collection,” Madon argued.

The petition included a list of 45 coins, identified by him, as those which were invoiced in the museum’s name, but has been put up for auction.

Ashish Kamat, Mody’s counsel, refuted the claims that Mody had put up the museum’s coins for auction.

He alleged that the petitioner (Todywalla) belonged to the rival business house and have been aware of the auction since December 28, 2013. “The auction was in the know of concerned persons since last year. Then why has the petition been filed two days before the auction,” questioned Kamat.

Kamat further argued that the coins that have been put up for auction have been shown by Mody as his private collection in the Income Tax Returns filed by him.

Mody made a statement that he will not auction the 45 coins identified by the petitioner till the matter was settled.

However, the high court restrained him from auctioning any coin which has been invoiced in the museum’s name. The court has directed Mody to file a detailed affidavit in reply by February 26.