Why Esther Anuhya murder case took time for police to solve

One of the major reason why it took time for the police to nail the killer of 23-year-old techie Esther Anuhya was that the police could not get any clue from technical intelligence. The police had to rely heavily on human intelligence to solve the case.

Nine teams tasked with different works, questioning of over 2,500 men and scrutiny of 36 CCTV footages of Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) at Kurla finally led the police to 29-year old Chandrabhan Sanap alias Chowkya, the man who brutally murdered Anuhya.

"The main reason for us to suspect involvement of taxi or auto drivers in the case is that Anhuya's body was found in a pit near Bhandupeshwar Kund in Bhandup (E) on January 16 and no bus ply near that area early morning. Only a cab or a taxi driver could have taken her to the spot from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT)," said a crime branch officer, who was part of the investigation team.

He added, ever since the body was found, the police had recorded statements of over 1,000 people, including the passengers that had travelled with Anhuya from Hyderabad to Mumbai, auto and taxi drivers, coolies and vendors near the LTT.

"We had gone through the call records of over 800 people but found no location of them in Bhandupeshwar Kund area or any location from LTT to the crime spot. That was mainly because there was no call or message traffic between 5am and 7am in morning. In this case, if the killer would have taken Anhuya from LTT, murdered her at Bhandupeshwar Kund and came back to LTT, the location would still have shown Kurla or wherever he received his first call or text message of the day," the officer explained.

According to the police, CCTV clips recorded at Kurla terminus from January 5 and eight days before that showed Esther leaving with an unknown man. "The efforts of a special team led us to the accused Sanap, a Kanjurmarg resident, who has a criminal record," said a police officer.

Sanap has around eight cases of bag-lifting and stealing registered at Gamdevi, Nashik, Manmad and Itarsi. The police zeroed in on Sanap after comparing his photos from police records with the face on CCTV.

According to the police, on January 5, a drunk Sanap had come to the terminus at 4.15am to rob passengers. Sanap posed as a driver and told Esther, who was waiting at the platform and told her he would drop her home for Rs300. He told her they would go on his motorcycle (which actually was his friend Nandkishore Sahu's). When Esther expressed her reservation, to convince her, Sanap asked her to note down his bike and mobile phone numbers and give them to her relatives.

"As Esther had no balance left in her phone, she pretended to call her relatives," an officer said. Sanap took her to Tilak Nagar, Sahakar cinema, EE Highway and then to a service road in Kanjurmarg. After claiming the bike was out of petrol, he allegedly took her into the bushes and tried to rape her. When Esther resisted, he banged her head thrice on the ground and strangled her with her dupatta. He also allegedly set the body on fire with petrol from his bike, but it didn't burn properly. So, he fled with her bags. Later, he told Sahu about the crime. Afraid that Esther must have given his number to a relative, Sanap returned to the spot for her cell phone but couldn't find it. The phone was later recovered by the police. Sanap had then fled to Nashik," said the officer.

In the first week of March, last year, after tracing Sanap to Kanjurmarg, he was taken to Nashik. "He had given Esther's bag to a beggar there saying his wife had died and he was disposing of her belongings. The bag was later seized by the police. We also recovered clothes and spectacles of Esther from Sanap's sister's residence in Kanjurmarg," the officer added.

Murder accused had changed his look to avoid suspicion: Police
Officers from the Mumbai crime branch claimed that after having murdered Esther, her assailant Chandrabhan Sanap had changed his looks to avoid police suspicion. "He had changed his get up. He had grown beared, used to sport a tilak on forehead and had started wearing white clothes. However, this move of his could not help him much and he was arrested," said Mumbai police commissioner, Rakesh Maria.

Who is Sanap
Chandrabhan Sanap's father used to work as a porter with central railway. After his father suffered paralytic stoke in 2007, his badge was transferred on his name. Sanap worked as a porter at CST railway terminus for some time and in 2007-08, worked at LTT. In 2009 he sold his badge to someone and started working as a driver with call centres. He was staying with his third wife and 14-month-old child in Nashik and was also working as a driver there.

An astrologer had told Sanap that his time was running bad
Sanap has told the police that after committing the crime, he had met an astrologer in Nashik, probably to know his fate. "The astrologer told Sanap that his bad days have come and he was facing Kaal Sarp Yog. The astrologer advised him to get a pooja done at Trimbakeshwar to change his fortune, which he did," said Mumbai police chief, Rakesh Maria.

Railway cops questioned Sanap, had let him off
The case, which took two months to be cracked, would have been solved in a few days after the incident had the railway police been alert. According to sources in the Mumbai police, the suspect, Sanap, was called to the railway police station for two hours almost everyday after the incident. "We did not arrest Sanap because the photograph collected from CCTV footage did not match with him at that time. When he was detained in Nashik for questioning he had a long beard. This is where they got diverted because the photograph collected from CCTV footage, the man was seen clean shaven," said a police officer.