Solving Crime | How indelible ink mark on man’s finger helped cops solve his murder case

After a post-mortem, officials from Deonar police station concluded that the deceased’s body was smashed with a stone, and the cause of death was a head injury. A case under sections 302 (murder) and 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) was registered against unidentified persons.

A watchman patrolling a parking area nearby, and an eye witness in the case, told the police that he saw two men with the deceased around 5 am. One of them had slapped the deceased, taken money from his wallet and pushed him to the side of the road, the watchman told the police. When the victim tried to retaliate, the two threatened to kill him. They hit the victim’s head with a stone and fled, the watchman said, as per the police.

The police arrested two drug addicts, Shafiulla Atiulla Qureshi alias Guddu (23) and Niyaz Ahmed Chaudhari (20) alias Ganja. They confessed to robbing the victim, and when he fought back, they allegedly smashed his head, police said. However, they said they did not know the identity of the victim, police said.

The police found nothing on his body to identify him, except the ink mark used on voters and the tattoos. The deceased’s photos were put up in areas nearby, and even shown on local TV channels, but there was no response.

The police turned their attention to the voter’s ink mark on his finger, which suggested he had participated in general elections held April 29. A police team searched the voters’ list of over 3 lakh people from Shivaji Nagar and Deonar segments. They compared the victim’s photo with those of voters. A police team also began a search for people with the initials B and K, and taking a cue from the ‘holy cross’ tattoo, also looked for someone who might have converted to Christianity.

The police narrowed down the list to around 100 men. The first name on the list was that of Wankhede. His mother confirmed he had been missing for several days and also identified his body from the photo. She said he had got the ‘holy cross’ tattooed on his hand, as it was similar to that of his friend’s. She told the police that his former girlfriend’s name began with B, which explained the ‘B’ and ‘K’ tattoos.

Upon searching Qureshi’s house, the police also recovered Wankhede’s wallet, which had his Aadhaar and voter ID cards, which further established the victim’s identity, helping connect the accused with the crime. Wankhede’s cell phone was also recovered from Chaudhari, who began to use the device after Wankhede’s death, even to chat with his family.

On September 10–2020, a Mumbai sessions court rejected Chaudhari’s bail application, observing that there was “sufficient material to show involvement of the accused”. “The offence is serious and is punishable with a death sentence,” the court further noted.

The Bombay High Court in September 2021 dismissed Chaudhari’s bail plea as withdrawn. On March 30, 2022, the sessions court rejected Qureshi’s bail plea.