Mumbai: Even though almost a month has passed, the Khar police — which is temporarily handling the Sheena Bora murder case — for reasons unknown has refrained from sending the alleged remains of Sheena that were found by Pen police in Raigad in 2012 to the forensic lab. Instead, it has sent samples from Sheena’s recently exhumed body based on which DNA tests were conducted by the forensic lab, proving it was hers.
A Pen police source stated that the remains found by it on May 23, 2012 allegedly belonged to Sheena, which was corroborated by the Khar police. The Pen police back then had sent the samples from Sheena’s remains to JJ Hospital, which the latter recently handed over to Khar police. Also, during investigations into the murder case, the Khar police went to the spot where the Pen police buried Sheena’s body and got it exhumed. Thus, the Khar police presently has in its possession two different samples from the remains of Sheena’s body. However, it sent only the samples from the body it had exhumed recently and not samples from the remains exhumed by Pen police in 2012.
Dean of JJ Hospital Dr. T.P. Lahane on Saturday told this newspaper that the samples sent by the Pen police to them back then were not good enough to establish the age or sex of the person, but are still good enough to perform a DNA test on.
In 2012, the Pen police failed to register a murder or an accidental death report despite Sheena’s burnt body being found in a suitcase. DGP Sanjeev Dayal ordered an inquiry through Raigad SP Suvez Haque. It is learnt that the police inspector handling the case three years ago was asked not to register any case.
When asked if the Pen police had also goofed up while sending proper samples of Sheena’s remains to the JJ Hospital, Mr Dayal refused to comment. Joint commissioner, law and order, Deven Bharti also refused to comment on the issue, citing that the case is now with the Central Bureau of Investigation. CBI spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said sometime will be taken to take over the case officially and hence the query can’t be answered.
