18 February,2016 07:18 AM IST | | Saurabh Vaktania
Cops say that the Cuffe Parade maid's death a tough case to crack, since nobody came forward to identify her and several of the accused were drunk that night
Investigating the death of a 25-year-old maid, who fell to her death from the 19th floor of a building in Cuffe Parade, has been tough, cops revealed. The case was difficult since none of the accused revealed anything and all were in an inebriated state when the incident took place. For several hours, the body remained unidentified and people were busy taking pictures.
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25-year-old Shamita Tambe fell from the 19th floor at Maker Tower
Shamita Tambe (25) worked as a domestic maid for businessman Ramesh Bhojwani (65) at his 19th-floor Maker Tower residence. She died in the wee hours of Saturday. The cops booked her employer Bhojwani, and six other servants under Section 202, while Suman alias Sanju Raut (35), was booked under Section 304A of the IPC. On Tuesday, the cops received a go-ahead for investigating the other accused in the case, including Bhojwani.
Order of events
The incident occurred on Friday night during Bhojwani's birthday party. After the party, he gave each of the servants Rs 5,000 and later, all of the servants had alcohol. A police officer said, "The servants took him to his bedroom. Due to his health condition, Bhojwani needs to be supported by at least two people to walk."
Read Story: Mumbai: Cops suspect foul play in Cuffe Parade maid's death
Meanwhile, the same night, while the rest of the servants were working in the kitchen, a small glass piece pierced Tambe's right foot. Raut made her sit on the small two-foot slab at the kitchen window, which does not have a grille, and tried to remove the glass. A police officer said, "In the process, she leaned and fell down. The servants went to inform the others and Bhojwani, who asked them to leave."
The body was found at 8 am at the entrance gate of the building. An officer from the Cuffe Parade police station said, "No one came forward and identified Tambe; all were busy clicking pictures. The building consists of 25 floors and we started from the first floor, asking each house about Tambe. At the 19th floor, we came to know about her identity."
Getting the truth out
Another police officer said, "By evening, we had traced all the servants who were not ready to speak. All of them said they didn't know anything about the incident. Later, we kept all of them in different rooms. We took one servant and told him that others have told your name and now you should accept your crime, after which he got scared and gave Raut's name. After thorough interrogation, Raut revealed everything."
The officer added, "However, all of the other accused knew about the fall, but did not tell anyone, not even us. Therefore, we brought a citation of cases from three states in order to apply Section 202 of IPC."
Several local activists and politicians had also taken a march to the police station claiming it is a murder and several such incidents have occurred in the past. However, Tambe's family is satisfied with the investigations. They claimed her body and conducted the final rites yesterday.
