The Special Investigation Team (SIT) which arrested four Juhu policemen for thrashing a 22-year-old youth to death in March for allegedly flouting lockdown norms, is yet to recover the fibre sticks used in the crime.
An official privy to the probe said that during interrogation, the four arrested cops did not reveal the fate of the fibre sticks and are stalling the probe.
The four arrested policemen – Santosh Desai (48), Digambar Chavan (39), Ananda Gaikwad (37) and Ankush Palve (35) were arrested on September 9.
They allegedly thrashed Raju Velu Devendra (22), a Nehru Nagar resident, to death, hoping it would serve a deterrent to those flouting lockdown rules. The arrests were made after the SIT headed by ACP Milind Khetle found that the policemen were at fault and had caused his death in police custody.
During the probe, however, the policemen did not reveal what they did with the fibre sticks. To recover the sticks, the SIT sought police custody of the accused till September 23, when they were produced in a local magistrate court.
An official said, it was also revealed during investigating that the CCTV camera footage of the day of the incident showed that Devendra was not lynched by the mob but was assaulted by the four policemen, leading to his death.
