DNA test, auto drivers statement helped cops identify Chembur victim

The victim who has been identified as Kanta Shetty and the accused from Chembur were in a relationship.

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A DNA test on the torso of the woman,whose dismembered body was found in Chemburs Chirai Lake and the statement of the autorickshaw driver who had ferried the accused gave the police the first clue about the victims identity.

The victim who has been identified as Kanta Shetty and the accused from Chembur were in a relationship,police said. Kanta had apparently persuaded accused Prabhakar Shetty to marry her. On October 29,Prabhakar allegedly murdered her after she threatened to defame him if he refused marriage. The womans dismembered body was found in a plastic bag in the Chirai lake on October 30. While her legs were found in another bag dumped in the mangroves near Trombay jetty a day later,police recovered the womans head in a drain near Shell Colony in Chembur after Prabhakar told them of the location.

Experts after preliminary tests said probabilities are high that the victim is of south-Indian origin, said Prahlad Panaskar,senior inspector,Chembur police station. The next clue to the identity was provided by the autorickshaw driver. Police said after the murder,Prabhakar had made at least three trips in different autorickshaws to dump the body parts.

We tracked down the autorickshaw driver who had taken Prabhakar to Chirai lake. He was able to provide a fairly accurate sketch of Prabhakar and said he spoke Hindi with a south-Indian accent. We guessed the woman may also be south-Indian, he said.

The hypothesis was proved right when Monday,they received a call from the Saki Naka police station regarding a woman,who was a native of Udupi in Karnataka.

On Monday,when Prabhakar Shetty was taken into custody,he confessed to the crime. He was produced before a magistrate on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till November 13.

We are analysing Prabhakars cellphone locations to put together his movements that night, said Lakhmi Gautam,Deputy Commissioner of Police,Zone VI.

srinath.rao@expressindia.com

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DNA test, auto drivers statement helped cops identify Chembur victim

The victim who has been identified as Kanta Shetty and the accused from Chembur were in a relationship.

DNA test, auto drivers statement helped cops identify Chembur victim