Panwar lied, fumbled and tried to hide his burn injuries: Police
MUMBAI: Ankur Panwar’s lies, evasive behaviour and burn injuries – which he tried to hide from the police – led to his conviction in the Preeti Rathi acid attack case, said Ashok Khot, police inspector with the Mumbai crime branch.
The case was initially investigated by the government railway police (GRP). Rathi’s family, disappointed with the GRP’s investigation, moved the Bombay high court and asked that the case be handed over to the CBI. The high court transferred the case to the Mumbai crime branch on December 4, 2013.
The crime branch formed a 12-member special investigation team, which camped in Delhi for more than 40 days and prepared a family tree of the Rathis and a list of Preeti’s neighbours, acquaintances and other suspects. Later, they turned their attention to a list of suspects named by Rathi, which included Panwar and Gahalon.
“We interrogated Panwar and found he had no answers to many questions. His family told us that he was not in [Delhi] at the time of incident and that he had left to look for a job. But there was no proof of this. When we looked into his claims, we found he was lying. He also had burn injuries that he tried to hide, and when we questioned him, he fumbled,” Khot said.
He said the police then checked CCTV footage from Bandra station and Panwar’s call records before arresting him on January 17, 2014.