Victim’s mobile led cops to the accused

It took eight months for the Kasturba Marg police to ascertain that the death of Borivli resident Sanjesh Janu Borle, 19, was a case of murder and not accidental death.

It took eight months for the Kasturba Marg police to ascertain that the death of Borivli resident Sanjesh Janu Borle, 19, was a case of murder and not accidental death. Borle, whose mutilated body was found inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park, was murdered by a classmate and not mauled by a wild animal, as the police had earlier believed.

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According to Nishikant Sawant, assistant inspector at Kasturba Marg police station, the police are allowed to probe cases of accidental death under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code. “The investigation was always in progress, more so as the cause of death was not known,” said Sawant.

The police on Saturday arrested Chetan Prakash Khankar, 19, the victim’s classmate at the Kohinoor Institute of Technology, Borivli, for the murder and kept track of the deceased’s mobile phone, which the accused had taken away from the scene of crime.

“The phone was off for a little less than eight months and so we could not trace it. It was switched on five days ago. The user said he had no idea that the phone was Borle’s. He said he was a friend of Khankar, who had given him the phone ten days ago,” said Sawant.

Khankar, who was taped by Borle on his mobile phone while doing sit ups after being punished, felt the victim would upload the video on Facebook. Khankar had deleted the video grab immediately after he took it away. “We are trying to retrieve the video from the memory of the phone’s software,” said Sawant.