Three kidnapping cases solved while probing Worli sea face murder

The Mumbai Crime Branch has solved three kidnapping cases of minor girls and reunited them with their parents while investigating a decomposed body found at Worli Sea Face. The identity of the woman remains unknown.

In a sustained investigation conducted over a month, Unit 3 of the Mumbai Crime Branch has solved three kidnapping cases of minor girls and reunited them with their parents while trying to identify the woman whose decomposed body was found at Worli Sea Face early last month.

HT Image

The woman’s body had become putrefied and had floated to the sea face from somewhere else along the coast. After examination, doctors from Nair Hospital said that she was in the age group of 16 to 25 years and was killed around seven days before the body was found. The woman was wearing a kurta-salwar and a locket with images of Shiva and Hanuman. She also had a black silk cord tied to one of her legs.

“We started checking missing women in this age group,” said the officer from Unit 3. “A 16-year-old girl had been missing since January from Sewri, and a kidnapping case had been registered in RAK Marg police station. We questioned several people in the vicinity and scrutinised her call data records. We learnt that a man aged 33 years came from the girl’s native Uttar Pradesh, as he was attracted to her. He then stayed in the same vicinity at his relative’s place, kidnapped the girl and took her to Chandigarh. We got a lead, and once it was confirmed that the girl was in Chandigarh, we alerted the RAK Marg police, and a team went and brought the girl to Mumbai on August 2. The accused has been arrested on charges of kidnapping and under POCSO.”

The second case was solved on August 5 after the Crime Branch Unit 3 rescued a 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her Wadala residence in April. “There were many similarities with the body that was found at Worli, so officials scrutinised at least 2,000 call data records and found a lead which turned out that the Wadala girl was alive and kidnapped by a 35-year-old man who lives in Mankhurd,” said the police officer. “An official visited Mankhurd and rescued her. The accused was arrested by the Wadala TT police on charges of kidnapping and other sections of the IPC.”

The third case was one where a 21-year-old woman went missing from her Vakola residence in Santacruz on May 9 and started staying in Goregaon without informing her family. “We suspected that she could be the woman who was found at Worli, so a police team started investigating,” said the official. “But she was traced to Goregaon on July 26 and reunited with her family.”

As of now, there is no concrete lead in the Worli murder case. The Worli police had decided to go in for a facial reconstruction process at the forensic department of KEM Hospital after they were unable to ascertain the identity of a woman, as the body was decomposed. “We have formed several police teams in the central region, and several Mumbai crime branch units are also working to crack the case,” said a senior police officer.