Three years later, Cops find remains at crime scene, thanks to Policeman Patil

While the Mumbai Police spent the past few days in a frenzied search for forensic evidence in the 2012 Sheena Bora murder it was eventually thanks to a Police Patil in Pen that they managed to recover skeletal remains mdash suspected to be Sheenarsquos mdash from the crime scene yesterdayThe team of police forensic experts and local villagers started digging at the crime scene around 6 am yesterday but met with little success until Police Patil Ganesh Dhene remembered the exact spot where the body had been buried It was eventually recovered around noon PicsDatta KumbharOver three years later the man still remembered the exact location where the Pen police had buried the body on May 23 2012 This comes after serious questions were raised about how the Pen police had managed investigations when they had first discovered the partly burnt decomposing body in 2012Early on Friday morning a team of police officials and forensic experts from Mumbai went to the Gagode Budruk village in Pen near which Sheenarsquos body was found The police had been trying to find forensic evidence in the case but had not met with much successThen they learnt of Police Patil Ganesh Dhene of Hetevne village who was present when the body was found at the crime scene on May 23 2012 and also when it was buried there by the police the same day It was thanks to him that the police recovered nearly the entire skeleton mdash in bits mdash from the spot after six hours of diggingThatrsquos the spotWhile the Mumbai team 10 police officers including an ACP along with five forensic experts reached the spot at 6 am Dhenersquos work started an hour earlier He had already been intimated about the exhumation efforts and he gathered five to six adivasis from the village to begin diggingLocal cops S Magar and KK Mhatre were also called to the spot ldquoBased on the spot shown by Dhene and Magar we started digging It was very muddy and we were slipping It was getting very difficult as it was also raining very heavilyrdquo said an officer from the Pen policeThe entire area had been cordoned off and the media was not allowed at the site while the work was on Police photographers were present there and took pictures of the whole process However it would be a while before they found anything The team dug one trench about fivefoot deep but found nothing thereThey marked that spot with a rock and moved to another area only to meet the same result They had dug four such ditches when the doubts began ldquoWe were losing hope but were prepared for anything We were in a mind to dig up the whole place if necessary and had even gone with lights in case we would have to dig into the nightrdquo recalled the officerThey had started digging at 6 am and by 1030 am had still found nothing Then Dhene remembered the exact spot where the body was buried and led the team there By then villagers had also gathered in huge numbers to watch the goings onAround noon having dug just a couple of feet into the ground the cops glimpsed a portion of the skeleton sticking out From this point on there were nonstop flashes from the police photographersrsquo cameras as the team slowly dug out all of the remains While the bones were recovered in bits sources said almost all of the skeleton had been foundTop cops in Mumbai were notified of the success and after the remains were packed in plastic bags the whole team left for Mumbai at 2 pm An officer said ldquoIt is amazing that Dhene still remembered the spot In three years several things must have changed monsoon season is on and several plants have also come up there Because of Dhenersquos work the murder case now stands a very strong chanceHe is the real hero in the whole case because without DNA samples the case would not be very strongrdquo Dhene who has been Police Patil since 2011 mdash his father was Police Patil before him mdash said ldquoI am happy that I could help in some way to bring justice to the victim I remembered that the body was buried near a mango tree in 2012 This helped me identify the spot