Mumbai Crime: Aarey cops covered up my son's sexual assault, murder, says father

The villa where Atharva Shinde was partying and below the lake from where his body was found some 300 metres from the villaIts sadly all too common to see families of crime victims struggle against police apathy to get justice for their loved ones This time though its one of Mumbai Polices own who has accused the force of a lopsided and unsatisfactory investigation into his sons death Narendra Shinde an inspector with the Economic Offences Wing EOW claimed that the Aarey police tried to cover up his sons alleged sexual assault and murder at a party in Aarey ColonyA week after he found his 20yearold sons body at an isolated lake in the Royal Palms Estate at Aarey Colony Inspector Narendra Shinde wrote a strongly worded letter to the director general of police DGP and Mumbai Police commissioner Through sources in the state police midday accessed the letter which slammed the Aarey police for its unsatisfactory investigation A day later the case was transferred to the crime branch Unit XI as the local police had failed to make a breakthrough This was confirmed by a senior official of the crime branchmidday had reported that the inspectors son Atharva Shinde had gone for a party to villa number 212 at Royal Palms on the night of May 7 Sources said Atharva did not know most of the people at the party and had merely accompanied his friend to the bash Narendras letter stated Atharva had gone to the birthday party of the daughter of a Marathi producer with a friend of his and he had texted me at night that he was staying over at a friends placeWhen he did not return home Narendra went looking for him and two days later found his body at a lake 300 metres from the villa His father has alleged that the youths death was not an accident but was due to sexual assault and murder In his letter Narendra has mentioned the first names of all those present at the party and has demanded narco analysis brain mapping and polygraph test of all the boys and girls who were present in the party which started on May 7Atharva ShindeShielding the culpritsShinde alleged that the police did not even take down the revellers statements down properly He wrote There are intentional deficiencies in the probe of Aarey police which will dilute and wash the murder evidence in the four walls of villa number 212 Atharva was subjected to physical abuse and sexual assault And the investigating team is putting forth their own theories and presumptionsHe added The line of probe is not in conformity with laid down procedure Unfortunately instead of booking the culprits Aarey police are trying to protect the suspects from the clutches of the law since they are influential persons Narendra alleged The postmortem clearly shows injuries to the chest contusions to the ribs and lungs and laceration on his private parts and these are not selfinflicted injuries but are caused by external force and heavy blowsHe stated that he has no grudge against the Aarey police but requested for a fresh investigation so that justice is done to the bereaved family which is undergoing trauma and mental agonyDespite several attempts to contact Narendra he refused to comment midday also reached out to Vinay Kumar Rathod the deputy commissioner of police under whose jurisdiction the Aarey police station falls He did not respond to calls or messages eitherThe other sideAn officer from the Aarey police said that the postmortem report stated that the cause of death was internal injuries The source added that there was no mention of injuries to the private parts in the provisional report The detailed forensic report is awaitedAccording to an officer part of the team that investigated the case so far they had watched two hours of CCTV footage both inside the villa where the party was held as well as the stretch between the house and the lake where the body was found There was no sign of sexual assault The deceased is seen running out of the villa barefoot Around 730 am he caught an auto rickshaw but it took a Uturn and dropped him at the same spot He then ran towards the lake but no one followed him said an officerThe CCTV footage also show him falling outside the villa and later tumbling down to the lake His injuries may have been caused by the fall said the officerInputs by Samiullah KhanAlso readMumbai Crime Cops son meets mysterious end after party at Aarey