26 August,2024 11:54 PM IST | Mumbai | Faizan Khan
The police officers who collectively solved the murder by relying on old-fashioned deduction
Zone VI police officers, including the Trombay cops, have cracked the murder of a woman whose body was discovered in a sack near the Metro car shed on August 24 in Maharashtra Nagar, Mankhurd.
Despite assembling teams from various police stations to scan CCTV footage and analyse mobile phone data, no clues emerged, even though the culprits were just 200-300 metres from where the body was found. After zeroing in on the accused, the deceased was identified as Reshma Jaiswal, a resident of Maharashtra Nagar, Mankhurd. The police have arrested her husband, Kanhaiya Lal Jaiswal; his brother, Ashok Jaiswal; a relative of the deceased, Ravi Srivastav; and his mother and sister, Munni and Reshma Srivastav. The victim was allegedly having an affair with Ravi.
At 10.40 am on Saturday, a vegetable vendor told the police that he noticed the sack near his shop around 7 am but didn't realise it contained a body until three hours later when a foul smell emanated from it. The police then swung into action and the body was taken to Rajawadi Hospital. "As part of our zero-tolerance policy towards crimes against women, we formed multiple teams and began piecing together evidence," said Satyanarayan Chaudhary, joint commissioner, law and order.
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The police visited nearby stations for reports of missing women aged 30 to 40 and interviewed various suspects, but they didn't find any clues. There were no operational CCTV cameras at the crime scene while the camera at the T Junction was down due to ongoing work. Despite the efforts of multiple teams working in different areas, nothing substantial was discovered by Saturday evening.
However, a witness informed the police that he had passed the location at 2 am without noticing anything unusual.
Hemraj Singh Rajput, DCP, Zone VI, then instructed his teams to focus on human intelligence, as the body must have been dumped at the spot between 2 am and 7 am. "We were then confident about this, so we decided to recreate the scene during that timeframe," an officer said.
A search was then launched in Mankhurd to identify anyone present during the time frame. Multiple teams were dispatched to question shopkeepers and auto and cab drivers. During the search, the police spoke with an auto-rickshaw driver who had a regular pickup near T Junction around that time. The driver said he had dropped a family off at Mankhurd railway station and their clothes were dirty, despite their claim that they were headed to a temple.
The police then examined CCTV footage from the station to learn that three individuals, including two women, changed their clothes outside the station around 3.30 am. They were later identified as Ravi, Munni and Reshma Srivastav. When the police located their residence in Mankhurd, a relative informed the officers that they had gone to work. Later, the police located the trio as well as Kanhaiya and Ashok and brought them to the station.
According to the police, Kanhaiya, Ashok and Ravi killed Reshma on August 21. The trio had conspired at Ravi's place, where the woman was called on the evening of her murder. Kanhaiya and Ashok allegedly held her hands and her legs while Ravi struck her on the head with a grinding stone.
According to the police, after the murder, Kanhaiya and Ashok told Ravi to dispose of the body by himself, refusing to assist him further. The body was kept in the house for three days, and Ravi even slept next to it. On August 24, Ravi sought help from the other two accused. They wrapped the body in three layers, placed it in a sack and left. Ravi struggled to carry the body alone, so he called his mother and sister for assistance. Ravi carried the body on his shoulder while the women scouted the area to ensure no one was around. Ravi initially intended to dump the body in a nearby creek, but due to its weight, he abandoned the plan.
