Post-mortem reveals 23-yr-old was raped before being burnt

Police officers investigating the case say that not just one person was involved in the crime; are exploring the possible role played by taxi and auto drivers outside LTT

Eleven days after she went missing, the charred remains of 23-year-old software engineer Esther Anuhya were recovered from the bushes near Tata Colony at Bhandup. The post-mortem conducted on her body at JJ Hospital revealed that the woman was raped before being murdered by the unidentified accused.

Esther Anuhya. File pic

Post-mortem reports also revealed that she had been attacked with a blunt object on her head and face. Depending on the sequence of events that led to her murder, officials are suspecting the involvement of taxi or auto drivers who stationed outside Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT).

While Esther alighted from the train at platform number 3 of LTT, the CCTV cameras on the platform did not record the footage, as they weren’t working. None of the other cameras in the station caught any footage of her. Her trolley bag and laptop are still missing.

Meanwhile, cops claim that the crime was most likely not committed by an individual, but most likely involved two people, who raped and thereafter murdered her. “There are several possibilities. Sometimes in auto rickshaws and taxis, we see two people sitting in the front seat.

We will be checking the location of each rickshaw and taxi driver in the vicinity on the day the victim went missing,” said an officer. The cops also pointed out that the route from LTT to her Andheri hostel does not include Bhandup. Along with her Samsung cell phone, cops have also recovered her undergarments from the spot that were lying separated from her body.

Cops were asked as to how nobody smelt the decomposed body. “Nothing was left to decompose, as the body was burned with the help of kerosene or petrol in order to destroy the evidence. We suspect that even her denims were used to burn her body,” said an officer.

The cops have booked the unidentified accused under section 302 (for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code. They will be adding more charges once they they a hard copy of the post-mortem report.

Esther, who was employed as a software engineer with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Goregaon, went missing upon reaching Mumbai on January 5, a day after she left Machilipatnam, her hometown, to resume work after her Christmas vacation. On Thursday, her partly decomposed body was found by her relatives, and identified with the help of her ring.

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