Murder victim’s kin off the hook

MUMBAI: There is finally some good news for the family of the three-year-old girl who was found murdered in Cuffe Parade on April 19. The results of the DNA tests conducted on the girl’s father, stepfather and grandfather have come back negative, ruling out their involvement in the crime. The police had initially suspected the role of a family member and had detained the three men repeatedly for interrogation.The victim’s grandfather, James Fernandes, had even alleged the police was torturing him to force a confession from him. Police sources have confirmed that family members are no longer suspects and that the focus of the investigation is now on the ‘serial-killer’ angle.
“The DNA results showed that samples obtained from Raju Sharma, Ashok Jadhav and James Fernandes did not match the sample obtained from the crime site. This has thrown the investigation off a little bit since we had suspected this was an internal matter and the girl’s grandfather, James, was one of our prime suspects. We are concentrating on other possibilities now,” said an officer involved with the probe.
The victim’s mother Susan Fernandes said she was glad the family finally had concrete evidence to prove their innocence. “Even though we had lost our child, the police constantly harassed us and tried to pin the blame on my father and husband so they could show quick results. This will now force them to find the real culprit instead of looking for scapegoats,” she said.
The police admitted that the investigation so far had not led to a breakthrough. “Efforts are on to identify the accused,” said assistant commissioner of police (Colaba division) Iqbal Shaikh.
A team of officers from the Cuffe Parade police station have gone through footage from two CCTV cameras installed in the slum where the family lives. The crime branch continued to detain Vijay Chakravarti, the man identified by the victim’s great grandmother as a suspect, since his DNA results are awaited.