The Mumbai Crime Branch has filed a 1,70-page charge sheet in connection with the murder of MBBS student Sadichha Sane. It comprises statements of 100 witnesses, with four of them recorded before the magistrate.
Sane, a resident of Palghar and a third-year medical student at JJ College, left home to appear for an exam but did not go to the centre. She was last seen at Bandra Bandstand from where she went missing on November 29, 2021.
Lifeguard confessed to killing Sane
While probing the matter, the Crime Branch had arrested lifeguard Mithu Singh and his accomplice Abdul Ansari after 14 months. While Singh was first arrested for kidnapping, during investigation he confessed to killing Sane. His friend Ansari is alleged to have aided the murder. The only evidence of Singh and Sane meeting was a selfie taken by the former at the spot where she went missing.
The statements of the cook and a delivery boy of the food stall owned by Singh were taken; they said that three to four days after Sane went missing, a male body had washed up on the Bandstand and both Singh and Ansari were talking among themselves, wondering if the body was a woman’s they would have to go to jail.
Statements of security guards at Sea Rock Hotel recorded
The statements of security guards at Sea Rock Hotel adjacent to Bandstand were also recorded. They allegedly saw Singh going with someone but returning alone; he even turned back to see something with his torch. Later that year in December, a woman’s body was found off Trombay Sea.
The police have taken the DNA sample and sent it to the forensic lab in Kalina but its report is still expected.
Singh had told cops that Sane tried to die by suicide
During initial interrogation, Singh had told the police that he was on duty as a lifeguard on Bandstand the day Sane went missing. He said she was walking towards the sea and it seemed she intended to die by suicide. He had allegedly caught her from behind and engaged in a conversation to take her mind off negative thoughts.
Singh told the police that they chatted from midnight to 3am sitting by the sea and took a few selfies. Sane told Singh that she had switched off her mobile and yet he called her three to four times so he could take a screenshot of the calls to evade suspicion.
