Mumbai crime: Cops cremate body resembling missing man, family alleges foul play

Narendra Mishra went missing on March 4 four days later the police found his body PicsHanif PatelA week ago Narendra Mishra stepped out of his home in Nalasopara to collect Rs 8 lakh that one of his customers had owed him for years Narendra never returned Four days later the police found a mutilated body resembling him but they cremated the corpse before the family could take a look at it The family has now alleged that the police deliberately botched up the probe to shield the culpritsNarendra 32 was a resident of Nalasopara East but ran a wholesale cloth store at a mall outside Malad railway station On March 4 he told his wife he was heading out to Swagat Hotel in Nalasopara to recover his dues from a fellow cloth merchant Rohit Singh Rohit and his brother Pankaj Singh had owed him Rs 8 lakh since 2015 but kept delaying payment This was the cause of several heated fights between themNarendra MishraWhen Narendra failed to return till the late night Dipti informed his brothers about the matter and approached the police But the cops turned her away and said that they would have to ait for 24 hours before registering a missing complaintIf the police had made one call to the suspects my brother would have been with us today said Narendras brother Ramrup who travelled from Chandigarh to Mumbai to seek justice for his brotherIs he really deadOn March 7 the police found a body of a man around Narendras age at the Padgha forests in Bhiwandi The head had been bashed in and there were several scorch marks on the body But the cops cremated the body without waiting for Narendras family to identify it Senior police inspector Bhaskar Pukhale from Tulinj police station said The body was highly decomposed so we cremated it We took the viscera samples and are waiting for the forensic report to ascertain the cause of deathCCTV footage shows Narendra Mishra in shorts foreground meeting Rohit Singh background outside Swagat HotelWith just photographs of the body to go on Narendras family isnt sure the body is his but the clothes on the body did seem similar said Ramrup They now fear the worst SubDivisional Officer Nalasopara Datta Totewar said We are still unsure if these are his remains We will conduct a DNA test to determine thatWhat are cops doingThe family was even more confused by the polices contradictory statements Initially the investigating officers claimed that Rohit was present at the spot where they found the body But later they claimed Rohit and his brother were not there on that particular day said Ramrup In response to this allegation Totewar said Based on the familys allegations we checked the Call Detail Records of Rohit and Pankaj according to which their location was somewhere elseWhen Narendra Mishra went missing his wife Dipti approached the police on March 4 but they told her to wait for 24 hours PicsHanif PatelDuring investigations the police recovered CCTV footage from Swagat Hotel which showed Rohit chatting with Narendra and calling him outside Totewar added Rohit told us that he called Narendra outside the hotel to give him the money and dropped him under a flyover near Tulinj police station Five teams have been formed for the probe and some of our officers have left for Gujarat in search of suspectsAlso ReadMan arrested for killing lover in Nalasopara