New twist in Anuhya murder case

Chandrabhan Sanap's DNA samples have not been found on Anuhya's body

Mumbai: Police may have a bit of trouble proving the charges they levelled against Chandrabhan Sanap, who allegedly murdered Hyderabad techie Esther Anuhya. In a blow to the case investigation, the State Forensic Lab, Kalina, has submitted a report to police, saying that Sanap's DNA samples have not been found on Anuhya's body.

Sources said that this means the case would be based on circumstantial evidence alone, and statements from witnesses. Also, Anuhya's laptop, which Sanap allegedly flung from a moving train and could have acted as crucial evidence in the case, is untraceable. Anuhya worked with TCS as a software engineer and lived in Andheri. She had gone home to meet her family for Christmas in Machilipatnam on December 22. She landed in Mumbai on January 5 at LTT, after which she went missing. The family members found her charred remains on January 16 amid bushes near Tata Nagar Colony in Bhandup (East).

Over 50 days after her disappearance, police nabbed Sanap, a former porter at LTT, with the help of CCTV footage from the terminus. A resident of Nashik who had come to Kurla LTT, he had allegedly tried to sexually assault the victim.

Lack of DNA evidence is being attributed to the fact that the charred remains of her body were found many days after the death, in a decomposed state. An officer who is part of the investigating team, however, denied that there would be any dearth of evidence, saying, ‘This will not make much of a difference to our investigations’.

‘We have his friend, our prime witness Nandkishore Sahu, who narrated the incident and said his bike had been used to commit the crime. We also have other witnesses. The victim's clothes were found at Sanap's sister's house. We also have CCTV footage that showed the girl walking with him."