Family of missing Dahisar youth spends two consecutive days at Kelwa beach in vain, as local police unsuccessfully excavate spot where they claimed to have buried two bodies in July 2014
How can buried skeletal remains go missing? That's the question the Shaikh family from Dahisar, whose 21-year-old son Nasim went missing on July 8, 2014, and is presumed to be one of the two washed ashore at Kelwa beach and buried there three days later, has for the local police.
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The Kelwa police carry out excavation at the beach to search for the buried bodies
While officers claim that the remains may have got washed away during a high tide, the family remains unconvinced and has raised serious concerns.
mid-day had reported on September 24 that the family, a team of forensic experts from JJ hospital, and teams from MHB and Kelwa police stations had started the excavation. But, two days on, even after digging deep in the spot the police had buried the corpse three years ago, they haven't been able to find the remains.
The excavation began after the family approached the Bombay High Court. Nasim's parents had lodged a missing person complaint with Borivli's MHB police in 2014.
Deep digging
Nasim's sister Anusaya Gaud told mid-day, "As per the court order, the Kelwa police and my father Rafiq went to the beach on Monday at 2 pm. The police used JCB machines to dig up the spot at 4.30 pm, where they said they had buried the body. However, even after two hours, they failed to find anything and called off the search. We later found out that they had been digging up the wrong spot. Then, they instructed me to be present, as the last time they had buried the remains in my presence."
Also read: Is man buried in hurry at Kelwa beach missing Dahisar youth?
Accordingly, yesterday, the whole family reached the beach. Gaud showed the spot and two JCB machines started the excavation. "But no remains were found. Then, even senior officers started making up stories, that maybe they got washed away during a high tide…" said Gaud.
"They told us that they are giving up and asked us to sign a panchnama, stating that the skeletal remains might have got washed away into the sea; but we refused to do so."
Third time lucky?
"When I threatened to move the HC over police failure, they asked us to come back to the beach on Wednesday. We don't know if they will succeed this time or not," she said.
"The fact that the remains are not there means someone moved them, which establishes our claim that he (Nasim) was killed."
The police now want to send the piece of a small bone recovered during the search to the forensic lab in Kalina for DNA matching.
Raising a serious point, a forensic expert questioned that if the earlier FSL Kalina report had stated 'no amplifiable sample sent for DNA', why did the Kelwa police not make arrangements to send another sample or the entire remains to the lab, considering the decomposed body was still in their possession.
Assistant Police Inspector Siddhawa Jaybhaye, who had earlier exuded confidence of being able to find where the bodies were buried as well as identify both, remained unavailable for comment yesterday despite repeated attempts.
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