Name dropped by suspect helped cops refine search

On learning that the accused had spoken of Ankush Jadhav,police records were accessed and networks connected,said officers.

The name Ankush Jadhav dropped by one of the gangrape suspects was a vital lead that immediately helped police narrow down their hunt.

Jadhav,whose name shows up in police records as a chain-snatcher from Dhobi Ghat,is also a murder accused who had dumped his victims body in a well inside the abandoned Shakti Mills in 2010. Details of the murder are not known to many people,said officers.

In his statement recorded on August 22,the victims male colleague told the police that one of the suspects had asked him if he was an accomplice of Ankush Jadhav,and whether he had committed a murder at the mill in the past.

On learning that the accused had spoken of Ankush Jadhav,police records were accessed and networks connected,said officers.

The moment we heard this name and the manner in which it was asked,we knew that the accused were locals,as very few people knew of the case, said a Crime Branch officer.

Jadhav is now in jail for murder. He used to be a regular at Shakti Mills and was part of a circle of drug addicts,police said. The body of the 2010 murder victim was recovered four days after he was stabbed. Only the locals and certain groups that frequent the mill knew of the case, said an officer.

Without waiting for the sketches of the accused,we immediately activated our informers to get us names and details of men staying in Dhobi Ghat who frequent the mill, said the officer.

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Salim Ansari,the last of the five alleged rapists to be arrested,has admitted that Jadhav was his friend,said an officer.

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