MBBS student missing case: Crime branch arrests one more accused
Mumbai: The crime branch on Friday night made a second arrest on charges of kidnapping a 22-year-old MBBS student
Mumbai: The crime branch on Friday night made a second arrest on charges of kidnapping a 22-year-old MBBS student. Earlier in the day, a lifeguard who was last seen with Sadichha Sane, who went missing around 13 months ago in Bandstand, was arrested.
The accused, Abdul Jabbar Ansari, 36, is a friend of the lifeguard, Mitthu Singh, 32.
The crime branch officials during their investigation found that when Sane and Singh were chatting at Bandstand, Ansari had called on Singh’s mobile phone and had used objectionable words about the woman. The police therefore suspect that Ansari knew that Singh was with Sane at that time.
Singh and Ansari have been booked under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 364(E) (kidnapping for ransom) of the Indian Penal Code.
On Saturday, the court has remanded Ansari in police custody till January 21.
Sane was a third-year student at Sir JJ Hospital and Grant Medical College. She had on November 29, 2021, boarded a train at 9.58 am from Virar station and got off at Andheri as she was to appear for her prelims at 2 pm. Then she boarded another train and alighted at Bandra from where she took an auto to Bandstand.
Her mobile phone location indicated that she had kept on roaming around through the afternoon, a police officer said. “CCTV cameras captured Sane heading towards the seashore opposite Taj Lands’ End at 12.30 am.”
Singh, the lifeguard on duty, spotted her and suspecting that she might attempt suicide, followed her. Noticing Singh, Sane told him that she was not there to end her life. Singh then started chatting with her and both sat on a rock till 3.30 am on November 30, 2021, the officer said.
During this nearly three-hour period, Singh had clicked four selfies with her, whereas Sane had taken one selfie with him, Singh said in his police statement. CCTV cameras had captured the cell phone screens blinking, indicating that selfies were taken, as well as one single beam of light, presumably from a cell phone torch, moving away from Bandstand around 3 am. However, due to insufficient lighting, it was not clear who it was, the officer said.
“As a lifeguard, Singh had phone numbers of policemen in his phone but he did not come forward to give a statement when the news of Sane’s disappearance broke. It was only after we zeroed in on him that he admitted he was with her and he was the last person to interact with her,” the police officer said.
A case of kidnapping was registered at Bandra police station on December 10, 2021. It was later transferred to Unit 9 of the crime branch.
The crime branch sleuths checked the CCTV footage but the 22-year-old was not seen anywhere returning from the seashore. Her mobile phone was also switched off, and there was no call, messages or internet activity thereafter.
The crime branch had also checked her WhatsApp messages, call records, and Instagram, Telegram and e-mail accounts, but did not find anything suspicious, the police officer said.
