The Kasturba Marg police have got their hands on the CCTV footage from the main entrance of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), which shows that Sarla Ahire, who was found murdered in a village inside the park on Thursday morning, was with two bikers
In the video, she is seen sitting pillion with one of the riders on the afternoon of Wednesday. “Their vehicle was followed by another man on a two-wheeler and Ahire was seen chatting with him as well. The video clearly shows this,” says an officer from the Kasturba Marg police station. The cops confirmed that the woman had also been raped.
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Ahire, a resident of Teen Dongri, Goregaon (West), used to work for an imitation-jewellery manufacturing unit and had left for work on Wednesday morning. She had been ill for almost a month, and had called her mother thrice on Wednesday to tell her about her poor health.
When she didn’t return home in the evening, her sister went to her workplace and was told that Ahire had not shown up at work that day. After searching for her all night, her family registered a ‘missing’ complaint with the Goregaon police station.
The next morning, some children found Ahire’s body at Trimurti village inside SGNP. The Kasturba Marg police circulated her picture to all police stations, which led to her identification by her family. Her throat had been slit twice and her eyes had been covered with a dupatta.
“We suspect that the two bikers killed her after raping her, and dumped her body. We haven’t yet found out their identity, but the search is on,” added the officer. Ahire’s mobile phone is also missing. The family said they were unaware if she was involved in any romantic relationship. The unidentified accused have been booked under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 34 (acts done by several persons toward a common intention) of the IPC.u00a0