Crime Branch along with the Indian Navy divers on Friday conducted a search operation in the Arabian Sea at Bandra Bandstand to find the body of missing MBBS student Sadichha Sane after a lifeguard suspected of killing her claimed he had dumped her body in the sea. However, the search did not yield any result, a police officer said.
The search operation lasted for about four hours.
“During interrogation, the accused told the police he had killed Sane and dumped her body in the sea near Bandstand,” the official said.
After this revelation, a crime branch team, Indian Navy divers and personnel from private agencies jointly conducted a search in the sea to locate her body.
The police officer said that along with Sane's body, they are also searching her other belongings, including her mobile and bag. “We are trying to collect as much evidence as possible in the investigation,” the officer said.
What was the case?
The accused was arrested after a case of kidnapping was registered in the case and confessed to the crime during interrogation, a crime branch official said.
A case has been registered under Sections 201(causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 302 (murder) of the IPC against the accused.
Investigation into the case revealed that lifeguard Mithu Singh had met Sane that night. The two had spent some time at the Bandra Bandstand during which the accused took a selfie with Sane. He also took Sane’s number though her phone was on flight mode.
The accused had said he had called Sane four times shortly after meeting her and had also kept screenshots of all the four outgoing calls. He had also sent a friend request to her on a social media forum. However, this seemed incongruous as he knew that the her mobile was on flight mode.
Sane’s mobile has remained switched off since she went missing almost 14 months ago and the ATM card that she had has also not been used since then.
On November 29, 2021, Sane, a third-year MBBS student had left home on November 29, 2021, but did not return.
The crime branch had arrested Singh and Abdul Ansari, who had spoken with Singh when he was with Sane at the bandstand. Police were still to establish a motive behind Sane's killing.
