Probe to recover body still on’: Court rejects bail to man booked for murder of MBBS student in 2021

Sane, a resident of Palghar, was on her way to sit for an exam on November 29, 2021. She alighted the Mumbai local train at Bandra and went to Bandra reclamation instead. When she did not return home, her family filed a missing person complaint. Police said their investigation showed that Sane was last seen at the reclamation in the company of Singh.

The police also claimed that Singh had made advances at Sane, and that in a scuffle that followed, she suffered injuries to her head, whereupon later her body was disposed of. The chargesheet claimed that there were calls between Singh and Ansari on the day of the incident. Ansari had allegedly asked Singh if he had had sexual intercourse with Sane, and continued to speak on these lines in the four calls he and Singh exchanged in the time he was with Sane. A witness further told the police that Jabbar and Singh had smoked weed that day.

In his bail application, Ansari said he is falsely implicated in the case and there is no role attributed to him, neither of Sane’s murder nor destruction of evidence. Ansari’s lawyer Harshman Chavan had submitted that he was not even present at the time of the alleged incident. He said the police had illegally detained Ansari and was brutally assaulted a day after Sane went missing. He said he had approached the State Human Rights Commission over the violation by police and that he was suddenly arrested over a year later.

The prosecution said the witnesses in the case worked in the same area as the accused, and if granted bail, they would be threatened and other evidence may be tampered with. Police also claimed that the probe showed that Ansari was seen around with Singh on the day of the incident.

“…the allegations against the accused are serious in nature. After detailed investigation in the crime, police have arrested the accused. There is prima-facie evidence about the involvement of the accused in the crime. Further, the apprehension of the prosecution that the accused will tamper with the prosecution witnesses and evidence,” the court said.

Singh, too, is behind bars.