Esther Anuhya murder: Cops file 542-page chargesheet

Mumbai: Police today filed a chargesheet against the lone accused in the murder and suspected rape of a woman software engineer Esther Anuhya from Andhra Pradesh, who was found killed here in early January. The 542-page chargesheet against Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap, a history-sheeter who worked as a railway porter here and then as a driver in Nashik, was filed in a Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court here. [caption id=“attachment_1543123” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Esther Anuhya.[/caption] “Police have filed a 542-page chargesheet, which included the statements of 76 witnesses,” Public Prosecutor Kiran Bendhbar told PTI. The 28-year-old accused has been charged with murder, rape, destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code and also relevant provisions of the Indian Railways Act. Crime Branch arrested Sanap in early March, nearly two months after the murder of the 23-year-old techie, employed with IT major TCS in suburban Goregaon, who went missing from the Lokmanya Tilak terminus in Kurla after arrival from her native place in early hours of 5 January. According to police, Sanap spotted the woman sitting at railway station alone and offered to drop her to Andheri, where she resided. He convinced the techie to sit on his motorcycle and strangled her at an isolated place when she resisted his attempt to rob her. Police later claimed they suspected victim was raped too. The victim’s decomposed body was found off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup on 16 January. The assistant system engineer, a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, had returned to Mumbai after a visit to her hometown. PTI