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The deceased came to reside with her parents at Machilipatnam on account of the leave availed by her and she stayed there from 22nd December 2013 to 4th January 2014. Shri Singavarapa Surendra Prasad, PW No.26, the father of the deceased accompanied her to Vijaywada, nearest Railway station to Machilipatnam at about 5.00 a.m on 4th January Tilak 6 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc 2014, from where a train was available to Mumbai. Ms.Esther boarded LTT Express at Visakhapatnam which reaches Mumbai on the next day at 5.00 a.m. At 9.00 p.m, she had a telephonic conversation with her father and she informed her father that she had reached Solapur. The LTT Express was to reach Mumbai at 5.00 a.m in the morning and accordingly reached the station. PW No.26 - Singavarapa - attempted to contact her in the morning on her mobile phone to inquire whether she had reached safely, but the call was not answered and the mobile went on ringing. The father, thereafter, contacted the Hostel to inquire whether Esther had reached there but he received a reply in the negative. On 5th January 2014 itself, the father (PW 26) approached Vijaywada Railway Police Station and lodged a missing complaint. With the said missing complaint, the devastated father landed at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Railway Station, Mumbai. He was informed by the railway police that the jurisdiction was that of Kurla Police Station and resultantly, he approached the Kurla Police Station.

Through this witness, the prosecution has therefore established that the body found on the Expressway on 16 th January 2014 was of the daughter of PW no.26 and the articles which were seized during the course of investigation and Tilak 32 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc claimed by the prosecution to be belonging to the deceased were proved to be matching with the DNA extracted from the bone of the deceased.

14 The deceased Esther who had boarded the train at Visakhapatnam, reached its destination at Mumbai with Esther but thereafter, her whereabouts were not known and she did not report to the Women's Hostel at Andheri where she was lodged. The Investigating Agency was therefore, focused on investigating as to how did this young girl who alighted the train at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, reached the place where her body was traced i.e. on the Service road adjoining the Eastern Express Highway. The prosecution relied on the CCTV footage from the cameras which were installed on the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus to establish and prove that Esther had reached LTT. The Investigating Agency approached the RPF authorities since the security of the LTT was entrusted to the Government Railway Force and the RPF. For security purposes, the 36 CCTV cameras were installed on the railway station with its display being monitored in the CCTV control room. On requisite Tilak 33 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc permission from the RPF, the Personnel from the Company who was maintaining CCTV cameras was instructed to provide the CCTV footage. The CCTV footage came to be transmitted to the pen drive and it was collected for the period from 4.00 a.m to 7.00 a.m on the date of incident i.e. 5 th January 2014 when Esther de-boarded the train at LTT which she had boarded at Visakhapatam. The CCTV footage was transmitted to the pen drive which came to be sealed after undergoing the entire requisite procedure on 18th January 2014 and Vishal Patil was examined by the prosecution as PW No.33. Further, Shri Pandey who was working in the CCTV Department in Central Railway is also examined as a PW No.31.

The third witness whom the prosecution has examined to establish the presence of the accused on LTT platform along with the deceased in the early hours of 5th January 2014 is PW no.20 Ramesh Rathod. The said witness was engaged in the job of Supervisor in the pre-paid taxi booth at Kurla Terminus Tilak 44 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc railway station and the nature of his work is to look after the workers and go to RTO for the said purpose. He deposed before the Court that on 4th January 2014, he was on night duty and his duty hours were from 9.00 pm to 9.00 am on 5 th January 2014. He further deposed that on 5th January 2014, Visakhapatnam train came on platform at 5.00 am to 5.15 am and he saw one lady going with one man who was having trolley bag in his hand. PW 20 - Ramesh Rathod inquired from him whether he required a taxi and he answered that he was having vehicle. The witness gave the description of the said person as having broad mustache and bald from front side and wearing t-shirt and blue jeans pant and was of approximately 35 years. He deposed before the Court that the police were making inquiries about the said incident regularly in regards to one girl missing from the said railway station and when he came to know about such an inquiry, he on his own went to Crime Branch Ghatkopar on 20th March 2014 and he gave his statement to the police that he saw the girl going with one person. This witness was summoned for Test Identification Parade on 25th March 2014 which was held in Arthur Road Jail Tilak 45 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc and identified the accused person as the one who was with the girl on 5th January 2014. The said witness also identified the accused person on the Video Conferencing screen.

The prosecution has also examined PW-14 Satyawan Gawade who has acted as a panch to the panchnama executed for seizure of the brassiere which was found on the body of the deceased at the time of the conduct of postmortem. The said brassier came to be seized and the panchnama executed on 17.01.2014 records that belt and hook of the brassiere was broken and it was having holes on it. The prosecution relied on the said circumstance to strengthen its case that the deceased Tilak 61 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc was subjected to forcible man handling and the broken hooks and belt of the brassiere was indicative of the same. 27 The aforesaid evidence brought on record by the prosecution establishes its case that Esther who was travelling from Visakhapatnam to Mumbai did reach Mumbai by the LTT Express Lokmanya Tilak Terminus express on the fateful day and went missing and her body could be traced only on 16.01.2014. The deceased was last seen in the company of the accused in the CCTV footage drawn from the cameras fitted on the LTT terminus station and she has been identified by the prosecution witness No.26 her father. The person whom she was accompanying in the CCTV footage is identified by prosecution witness No.27 Hemant Dharma Koli who was staying in the area where the accused were residing. The prosecution has also relied upon the testimony of PW-18, PW- 19, PW-20 and PW-21 who had identified the accused as the same person who was present on the platform on Kurla Terminus on 05.01.2014 and PW No.20 has been relied by the prosecution to establish his case that the deceased along with Tilak 62 CONF_CASE_3_15.doc accused left the LTT terminus on 05.01.2014. The prosecution has also relied on the Test Identification Parade where all the aforesaid witness have identified the accused as the person who was present on the platform and whom the deceased had accompanied when she exited the LTT terminus.