Directing the police to continue the investigation in the case, a division bench of Justices VM Kanade and PD Kode asked the police to hand over the remains to the family for the last rites.
Upendra Rai and his family, who have been waiting for more than two years now to find out who were the perpetrators behind the murder of their three-year-old daughter, will finally be able to perform her last rites as the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the police to hand over the mortal remains of the child to her parents.
Directing the police to continue the investigation in the case, a division bench of Justices VM Kanade and PD Kode asked the police to hand over the remains to the family for the last rites.
Rai is an electrician and stays in a chawl in Borivali (East) along with his wife and another minor child. Rai’s advocate Ashish Chavhan said, “After considering the case we feel that it was proper that we ask for the mortal remains. We have no grievances against the police. They have recorded statements of over 300 witnesses and done a fair investigation but it has led to nothing.
So we were left with no choice but to move the plea for the return of the remains.”
Rai’s daughter Shreya had gone missing on October 14, 2009 and she was found dead on December 3. Her head had been severed from her body. Rai had identified her by the clothes she had been wearing at the time. A DNA test later confirmed that the remains were that of Shreya’s. The remains were found hardly 300 mtrs away from Rai’s residence at Vithal chawl in Borivli (East).
Based on preliminary findings of forensic expert Roma Khan, Rai had moved the HC, praying for transfer of investigation from the Kasturbha police station to an independent agency. Khan had opined that the girl was a likely victim of child sacrifice.
During the hearing of Rai’s petition in 2010, after the case was transferred to the Crime Branch, the investigating agency had agreed to look at the case from the angle suggested by Roma Khan. However, the police ruled out child sacrifice.
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