The prosecution in the alleged rape and murder of techie Esther Anuya examined two key witnesses on Wednesday. The witnesses, the supervisor of a prepaid taxi booth and a pay and park attendant, identified accused Chandrabhan Sanap in the sessions court during the hearing, which was conducted through video-conference. The defence, however, claimed that there could be a possibility that the two men were tutored by the cops.
The prosecution in the alleged rape and murder of techie Esther Anuya examined two key witnesses on Wednesday. The witnesses, the supervisor of a prepaid taxi booth and a pay and park attendant, identified accused Chandrabhan Sanap in the sessions court during the hearing, which was conducted through video-conference. The defence, however, claimed that there could be a possibility that the two men were tutored by the cops.
Both witnesses were on duty outside the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) on January 5, 2014, the date of the alleged crime. The taxi booth supervisor as well as the pay and park attendant claimed that they had seen Sanap accompanying a young woman outside the railway station around 4 am.
The supervisor further said that when he saw the two coming out of the railway station, he had asked if they needed a prepaid taxi. Sanap had said no to the offer, he told the court.
In his statement, the attendant said he specifically remembered Sanap since he had refused to pay the charges after parking his bike. When asked for the money, Sanap snapped at the attendant, saying how come he didn't know that he was a policeman, the court was told.
When defence advocate Prakash Salsingekar asked the supervisor to tell the court how many customers had refused to avail his services in past two months, he replied in the negative.
Salsingekar asked the attendant if he could recollect how many people had snapped back at him in the past two months and how many of them had refused to pay parking charges. The attendant said he didn't remember the exact details.
The defence lawyer argued that if the witnesses were unable to recollect the incidents that had taken place in the past two months, how was it possible that they were able to identify a man whom they had seen a year ago. It seems the witnesses have been tutored by the police, he said.
According to prosecution, Esther went missing from LTT in Kurla on January 5. After spending Christmas and New Year with her family in Andhra Pradesh, the 23-year-old was returning to Mumbai, where she was working with the Tata Consultancy Services. Her decomposed body was found in the mangroves near the Eastern Express Highway in Kanjurmarg on January 16. The crime branch arrested Sanap, a resident of Sai Society at Karve Nagar in Kanjur Marg, on March 2 for his alleged involvement in the crime.
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