Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Cops arrest one more on kidnapping charges
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 in the early morning of November 30, 2021, 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(A) (kidnapping for ransom) of the IPC.
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 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.
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 woman was not seen returning from the seashore.