Solving Crime: In 2014, Mumbai police revisited suspect list to zero in on man who raped and killed 23-year-old techie woman

Recalling the whole incident, a senior police official said the woman was returning to Mumbai after spending Christmas with her parents in Hyderabad.

As she alighted the train at the LTT station in the early hours of January 5, Sanap approached her. He posed as a taxi driver and convinced her that he would drop her at her hostel in Andheri, said the police

“Sanap was not a taxi driver and his sole intention was to rob her. Keeping that in mind, he took the woman to the parking lot where his bike was parked,” the police added.

However, after seeing the bike, the woman was reluctant to travel on it. The accused claimed that instead of giving money to the rickshaw or taxi driver, give it to him rather, which would help him fill patrol.

“After witnessing that the woman was looking around for help from pedestrians, Sanap picked up her bag and kept it on the tank of his bike. She hopped onto his bike to save the bag,” said an official.

Sanap then planned that he would take her to a secluded spot and escape with her bag after threatening her. “He had earlier thought that he would threaten her somewhere in between and escape with her bag but as he got excited (by the unintended touches during the bike journey), he decided to rape her instead. Between the stretch of Kanjurmarg and Mulund, Sanap stopped his bike and took her to the bushes to rape her but as she was strong enough to save herself from being raped, in a fit of rage, Sanap strangulated her to death,” said an investigator.

He then escaped from there, called up his friend Nandkishor Sahu and took him to the spot. The accused destroyed her body by pouring petrol and burning it, said the police.

The police alleged Sahu did not help him in the crime and he was later made the prime witness in the case.

When the woman’s parents could not reach her through calls and as she failed to reach the hostel, they approached police stations in Hyderabad and Mumbai. A missing case was lodged at the Vijayawada police station in Hyderabad and after her family members met senior police officials in Mumbai, the crime branch was also appointed to investigate.

The Kurla Government Railway Police was also conducting a parallel investigation as the LTT railway station appeared under their jurisdiction.

During the investigation, the police came across CCTV footage of a platform which showed the woman walking with Sanap towards the foot overbridge and the Kurla GRP discovered the grab. Later that month, the woman’s remains were recovered from the bushes in Kanjurmarg.

“The CCTV grabs proved to be the most pivotal lead in the case. We enlarged the picture and started looking for the individual. It was shown to every person at the LTT station. One porter identified the suspect as Sanap as he had earlier worked as a porter in the same station,” said the officer.

On February 20, 2014, the Kurla GRP picked Sanap up from Nasik and interrogated him. But as he did not confess, the GRP officials felt that he was innocent and let him go.

“He had also grown a beard to mislead the investigating agencies and that helped him escape for a while,” said an officer.

However, two months later, when the crime branch and the GRP officials did not have any lead to investigate further, the two agencies shared the list of interrogated individuals and started revisiting them.

As a part of the investigation, the police went through the call data records and scrutinised the IMEI numbers of the suspect’s mobile phones. The realised Sanap was at the LTT station in the early hours on January 5.

“We picked him up for questioning again. Sanap initially denied that he was at the LTT station on January 5 but when we showed the evidence that one of his mobile phone’s location was at the LTT station, he started giving vague responses,” said an official.

The police then got a barber to their office and shaved off his beard and then it was confirmed that he was the suspect seen in the CCTV footage.

“He then confessed to the crime and revealed that he had disposed of the woman’s laptop in a river and gave her clothes to a beggar in Nashik,” said an investigator.

After the police got pieces of evidence and 39 witnesses were examined, a court convicted Sanap under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and sentenced him to death.