Missing MBBS student case: Police are planting evidence, says accused family

Meeth’s Kitchen (seen under the tarpaulin), an eatery run by the accused Mithu Singh at Bandstand in Bandra West

Mumbai crime branch officers, investigating the case of 22-year-old MBBS student from JJ medical college, who went missing in 2021, claim to have recovered her identity card from accused Mithu Singh's small eatery that he ran at Bandra bandstand. Sources have said that the police dug up the kitchen after they received information that Singh had buried the student's identity card there. A witness had found the card a month after the woman went missing.

The family of the accused has claimed that the cops are planting evidence because they have nothing. Earlier the crime branch claimed to have found blood stains on a buoy seized from Singh's house, which his family said may be from one of their relatives who suffers from varicose veins.

According to sources, a team from Unit 9 visited Bandstand on Friday evening, and dug up Singh's Meeth's Kitchen based on the information, and recovered the identity card in front of the Panch. Sources have said that the identity card of the victim belongs to the JJ Medical College. The officials will write to the hospital to get it verified.

Accused Mithu Singh

"A team from the crime branch came to Bandstand, dug up the area inside Meeth's Kitchen, and then we were told that the cops had found the identity card of the girl who went missing. We are scared that the cops are planting evidence against Singh and his friend, Abdul Ansari," said a close family member of Singh.

"We are one hundred per cent sure that Singh and Ansari have not done anything, and the crime branch is doing all this to close the case.

"First, they claimed to have found human blood on a buoy that was taken many times inside the sea in the past 1.5 years. Even if the blood stains are there, we want police to take a sample of our relative, who suffers from varicose veins," a close family member of the accused said. He also said that if they talk to the media, the cops harass them, and that is why they do not wish to reveal their identity.

Also Read: Mumbai: Cops rope in private divers to look for MBBS student

Card destroyed?

According to sources, the cops found that Singh had destroyed the identity card, which had been found by a witness at Bandstand a month after the alleged murder. "We were not sure where exactly the card was destroyed, but during the investigation, some information was received, based on which it was recovered," a source said.

Earlier, the police claimed that they had a witness who claimed that he found the identity card of the girl whom the cops were looking for, in November 2021. The witness informed Singh's sister-in-law, and she informed her husband; the identity card was shared with Singh on his WhatsApp, and he refused to identify the girl and asked them to destroy it. Singh's sister-in-law conveyed the message to the witness. Now, cops claim that they have recovered it from Singh's kitchen.

The student's father said, "I had asked the Investigating Officer Mahendra Patil and Deputy Commissioner of Police of Mumbai Crime Branch about the identity card of my daughter. Patil told me a person had recovered it but Singh's sister told him to destroy it. When I asked IO and DCP why can't they arrest the person who destroyed the evidence, they remained silent. The cops never revealed identity of the person who destroyed her identity card. Why have we not been informed about its recovery?"

Nov 29
Day in 2021 that the student went missing