Police reconstruct sequence of events in techie murder case

Police today reconstructed the sequence of events leading to the murder of Andhra Pradesh- based software professional Esther Anuhya in January this year, a senior official said.
Chandrabhan Sanap, a history-shetter and the lone accused arrested early this week, was asked to enact the chain of events from the early hours of January 5, when he spotted Anuhya at Kurla terminus station where she had arrived by train from her hometown.
He then took her on a bike on the pretext of dropping her at hostel in suburban Andheri.
"Sanap was made to demonstrate how he rode the victim from Kurla to the spot off the Eastern Express Highway (where she was murdered) on the bike, how he carried her luggage on the two-wheeler and executed the murder," said Sadanand Date, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).

The purpose behind the exercise was to have a better understanding of the incident and prepare a water-tight case, police said.
Date said concerted efforts were being made to recover the victim's laptop, which the accused threw in a creek from a moving train between Tilwala and Khadawali stations.

"Sanap said he threw away the laptop as he thought it had captured his face when opened. To verify his claims, we spoke to Anuhya's father who stated that his daughter's laptop had a facial recognition software. Divers have been pressed into service to search the laptop," the officer added.
Anuhya's cloths and spectacles were recovered from a premises belonging to the accused's sister and a DNA examination would be done on them.

According to police, Anuhya had two SIM cards in her mobile phone and one of them had talk time. Police had earlier said the 23-year-old had no talk time left in her mobile and hence could not speak to her friends or family before going with a stranger on his bike.
Police are baffled as to why she didn't ring up either her friends or family members before sitting on his bike.
Date said they have identified witnesses, who had seen the victim along with the accused at the railway station.
"Papers have been submitted to the Government seeking appointment of a special public prosecutor for the case."

The techie's decomposed body was found on January 16 in suburban Bhandup. Police zeroed in on Sanap after he was spotted with the software engineer, employed with TCS, in a CCTV grab at Kurla station.