An uneasy silence courses through the narrow Colaba lane housing Ashoka Apartments, from where a middle-aged man with "occultist tendencies" had flung a three-year-old child to her death on Saturday evening, stunning the neighbourhood.
Two days after the mindless killing of Shanaya Hathiramani, the motive remains unclear to the cops, but many troubling and even uncanny details have emerged from the probe so far, mainly from a diary said to belong to the 43-year-old accused, Anil Vishu Chugani.
Chugani occupied a one-bedroom apartment on the seventh floor of the building's 'A' wing. It was from here that the child, a twin, was thrown to the ground.
On Monday, the Colaba police team recovered a diary from his bedroom which clearly refers to the crime. One of its last pages read, 'Save life. Kill twins. Go to jail', said a senior police official privy to the probe.
He told this newspaper that the accused had planned to murder the twins after returning to the city six months ago but failed. He had been asking the twins' parents, who live across the street from him, to send the children to his home. The parents had refused. But on Saturday, he managed to lure one of the twins into his home by promising her chocolate and bolted the door. At this point, the domestic help and the neighbours raised an alarm. But it was too late.
Shanaya's parents were soon told their daughter had "fallen" out of a window. They didn't know that their neighbour had meanwhile placed a call to the cops claiming responsibility for hurling their three-year-old girl from his window.
"The diary seized from his flat had every minute details jotted down. Right from how he would start his day to how the day would unfold based on the interpretations he would make by looking at a lizard on the wall," the police officer said.
"Chugani knew what he was doing, going by what he has so clearly the written in the diary," he said.
The cop further said that after the crime, Chugani kept a straight face, betraying no emotion. "He remained unruffled," pointed out another officer who is part of the probe.
During questioning, Chugani reportedly told the police that he believed "in signs received from supernatural powers and would act on their directions".
Asked about his conduct behind the bars, another official said that he had been calm and exhibited "nothing abnormal, though he talks funny at times".
So far, the Colaba cops, who have booked Chugani for murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and for black magic under the Prevention of Black Magic Act, have not found any object from his house to indicate his involvement in occult practices.
‘Supernatural’
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| Cops say Chugani’s diary mentioned strange connections. One read: ‘If you see a lizard on the wall, it will pour in the city’ |
| He also wrote about getting ‘signs from supernatural powers’ that would ask him ‘to get rid of bad luck by chanting’ |
| The diary also notes hourly details of his life, mentioning how he felt every minute and when he felt the presence of an otherworldy power near him |
Police investigations further revealed that Chugani struggled in a bad marriage before separating from his wife some eight months ago.
After the incident, when the police called up his wife, who resides in Andheri with her mother, she refused to visit the police station or have anything to do with him.
Inquiries from his neighbours have elicited details of his bearing that point to a life beset with problems.
"He wasn't your usual neighbour," residents of the society claim, describing him as a loner with no job, a failed marriage and an unsuccessful business in Morocco.
He shut out the the world, kept to himself and hardly ventured out of his apartment, residents say.
The only other person seen entering his house was the help.
Speaking to this newspaper, one of Chugani's neighbours who claims to know him since he was a child took on a dismissive tone. "He would cross paths with us but wouldn't greet us or talk to us. He would just make this face and pass by."
Another neighbour told DNA that a casually dressed Chugani would often visit the house of the Prem Lal Hathiramani, the father of the child he confesses to having killed. Hatiramani stayed in a residential apartment just across the road.
But other than that, he did not have any social ties.
A security guard at Ashoka Apartments said that Chugani never spoke to anyone: "He headed out quietly and returned the same way."
His other neighbours preferred not to say anything about "that weird man".
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