Crime branch still looking for who tore file notings

Despite questioning over 30 clerks and section officers from the Urban Development Department (UDD), the crime branch is yet to identify those responsible for tearing off notings from a crucial file related to Adarsh society.

Despite questioning over 30 clerks and section officers from the Urban Development Department (UDD), the crime branch is yet to identify those responsible for tearing off notings from a crucial file related to Adarsh society. Four pages – numbers 15, 27, 99 and 279 – containing notings and signatures of then CM Vilasrao Deshmukh and department secretary Ramanand Tiwari are missing.

HT Image

A senior crime branch official said the file had been closed at the end of 2003. “It is impossible to forensically establish when they were torn,” the officer said, adding that the police had to rely heavily on ground investigation to trace the culprit/s.

The police are currently recreating the movement of the file in the UDD before it was shut in order to establish who received it last. Though it will not conclusively establish anything, it may help police find a clue to start on the trail of the next official who opened it, the official added.