In the case of Uzbek woman against Police officer Bhanudas alias Anil Jadhav, on Sunday Mumbai police visited Jadhav’s Pune farmhouse to search for human skeletons which were allegedly buried within the farmhouse property according to the Uzbek woman. However, the police team couldn’t spot the exact location of the skeletons at the five-acre plot at Parli village in Pune.
According to a senior officer, the investigating team visited the farmhouse on 27th October along with the woman and an executive magistrate. The entire search was video recorded. The woman couldn’t identify the exact spot as she said that while the man was murdered by Jadhav in front of her, he didn’t bury the body in her presence.
The woman has accused Jadhav of killing the man who had come looking for her sister in 2016. The man’s sister had apparently died of an overdose in the farmhouse and Jadhav buried her body on the farmhouse’s plot.
The Uzbek woman had come forward and filed a case against Jadhav in Chembur police station on 10th October, accusing him of the man’s murder and raping her multiple times since 2004.
According to the woman, she had come to India in 2004 with dreams of making a career in the film industry. She had approached Jadhav through an agent for help as her visa expired in six months.
“He took my number and repeatedly called me. He took my passport, saying that he would help me extend my visa and get me a lead role through his contacts,” the woman stated in her complaint.
Jadhav also prepared fake documents such as voter ID card, Aadhaar card, and railway pass to enable her to stay in the country, she alleged. Later, he threatened her that she could go to jail if this forgery came to light, and had a physical relationship with her without her consent, the intervention plea said.
According to the woman, he raped her for the first time at Chembur police station by spiking her drink when she approached him with help for extension of her visa in 2008. During this period, the woman aborted pregnancy twice, but when she became pregnant for the third time, Jadhav agreed to marry her, she said. However, he married her "without divorcing" his first wife, she alleged.
Jadhav, who has been suspended, had filed an anticipatory or pre-arrest bail application before sessions, Judge K S Hore, soon after the FIR was filed. Opposing which the woman had filed an intervention application through her lawyer Nitin Satpute, seeking that she be heard before the bail application was decided. In her intervention plea, she has opposed the grant of bail for him.
The court allowed her to intervene, and adjourned the hearing while refusing to grant interim protection from arrest to Jadhav.
According to the complaint, she has a five-year-old son from Jadhav and that he had forced her to undergo two abortions. In one instance, the woman claimed that Jadhav, a drug addict, placed a revolver on her temple and forced her to abort.
The Mumbai police have filed a primary complaint of sexual abuse. The police, however, hasn’t filed a case for murder. “Till the time we find some evidence like skeletal remains, how can we register a murder case?” an officer said.
The woman’s lawyer accused the investigating team of harbouring prejudice against the victim and is not probing the case properly.
“How would she point out the exact spot when Jadhav only told her about having buried them in concrete within the farmhouse so that animals do not end up eating their bodies? When they did find a concrete structure in the farmhouse, they should have checked there. They should have also had sniffer dogs check the area. They had also been told that the former caretaker of the house is aware of what happened. They just need to question him. However, none of these things were done,” said lawyer Nitin Satpute.
