Solving Crime: How a SIM card helped Mumbai police solve actor Meenakshi Thapa’s murder case

In March 2012, Jaiswal and Surin took Meenakshi to Uttar Pradesh on the pretext of work. According to the police, they had planned to kidnap her and seek ransom as they believed she came from an affluent family.

On March 13, 2012, Meenakshi called her mother and said she was travelling with Jaiswal and Surin to Uttar Pradesh by Kamayani Express. After she reached Allahabad, Meenakshi called her mother again and informed her that she was going to Surin’s home, the police said.

However, from March 15 onwards, Meenakshi could not be contacted. Her phone as well as those of Jaiswal and Surin were switched off, Meenakshi’s mother said. Two days later, on March 17, Meenakshi’s mother received a text message from an unknown number saying that if she wanted to see her daughter safe, she should pay Rs 15 lakh within three days. The message also threatened that if she informed the police, an obscene video of her daughter would be uploaded on the internet and would be circulated in her hometown, Dehradun. The actor’s mother then went to a police station in Dehradun and lodged a complaint.

She also informed her son, who was posted in the Army in Jammu and Kashmir. Meenakshi’s brother and her friend Alok Verma then filed a missing person’s complaint at Amboli police station in Mumbai. Verma had dropped Meenakshi at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus railway station in March and had seen the two accused with her.

On April 14, 2012, Investigating Officer Ashok Sawant received information that Jaiswal and Surin would visit the Axis Bank ATM near Bandra station. The police set up a trap and the accused were apprehended. Though they had done away with all the evidence, Meenakshi’s SIM card was allegedly still in their possession and this helped the police trace their location. The accused admitted to using Meenakshi’s SIM card to send messages to her mother after which they were arrested, the police said.

Based on the information provided by Jaiswal, the police said, on April 16, 2012, Meenakshi’s headless body was recovered from a septic tank in Allahabad near Surin’s house. According to the police, the actor was beheaded by the accused and they carried the head in a bus from Allahabad to Lucknow and threw it. All attempts by the police to trace the head between the jurisdictions of Kand police station and Gorai Ganj police station failed.

Later, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam represented the police before the trial court and examined 36 witnesses, including Meenakshi’s mother, sister-in-law, brother, Verma and other friends. Other witnesses included Surin’s father, who deposed that Surin had brought Meenakshi to their Allahabad home in March 2012. Surin’s cousin also deposed that a woman, who “looked like a heroine” had come with Surin.

On May 10, 2018, Sessions Judge S G Shete convicted Jaiswal and Surin and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Bombay High Court rejected Jaiswal’s bail plea in August 2018. The appeals filed by the duo against their conviction are pending before the high court.