The Byculla police have claimed to have cracked the case of the mysterious fall of five-year-old Manavi Ingle. Manavi was flung from the 15th floor of the building she stayed in with her parents
Five-year-old Manavi Ingle was thrown from the lobby outside her 15th floor home in December
The Byculla police have claimed to have cracked the case of the mysterious fall of five-year-old Manavi Ingle. Manavi was flung from the 15th floor of the building she stayed in with her parents.
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The police arrested the victim’s neighbour, 35-year-old Rekha Sutar, yesterday; cloth fibres stuck underneath her nails were examined by a forensic expert and found to be of the girl’s.
Where cops later conducted a test to determine how she suffered the fatal fall. Pic/Bipin Kokate
She will be produced in court today. A spat between the deceased’s father and the accused had allegedly led to the crime.
Fatal fall
Manavi, who stayed in Vighnaharta Society, Ghodapdev, was found lying in a pool of blood in the building’s parking lot by the security guard there on December 19, 2016. She was taken to KEM Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. The Byculla police had registered a case of murder against unknown persons.
During investigation, Manavi’s father Ashok said he suspected two women who lived on the same floor to have committed the murder.
The police then questioned the two neighbours - a 58-year-old woman and Sutar - and registered a detailed statement. The Crime Branch was conducting a parallel investigation.
Ashok had told the police that when he was getting Manavi ready for school, he had gone into the kitchen for a while, and on returning to the bedroom, had found her missing.
“Ashok came out and saw Sutar in the corridor. He asked her if she had seen Manavi; she said she hadn’t. When Ashok was searching for her, a garbage collector, who had come up in the lift, told him that she had fallen,” said an officer.
Police speak
“Forensic analysis revealed that a young person had thrown the girl with full force, this pointed the needle of suspicion towards Sutar. Also, we had clipped the nails of both Sutar and Manavi for tests and found fibres from Manavi’s clothes under Sutar’s nails,” said another officer.
Deputy commissioner of police, zone III, Pravin Padwal said, “On the basis of our findings, we have arrested Sutar and will produce her in court.”
In a fit of anger?
Sutar had lost her 10-year-old son in June 2016, which had disturbed her mentally. On that fateful day, she had been served a divorce notice, which she had refused to accept.
The court bailiff had then gone to Ashok, asked him his name and requested him to bear witness to the fact that she had not accepted the notice, which Ashok refused to do, saying they were already not on good terms.
The bailiff then allegedly went back to Sutar and told her that he would tell in court that she had refused to take the notice and that her neighbour, Ashok Ingle, was witness to it. The police suspect this had angered Sutar and made her push Manavi.
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