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A year later, family holds memorial service for Hyderabad techie raped, murdered

The victim, a 24-year-old software engineer, was found dead in Bhandup on the Eastern Express Highway.

The victim, a 24-year-old software engineer, was found dead in Bhandup on the Eastern Express Highway. (Source: Express Photo)

Exactly a year after an Andhra Pradesh native went missing from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and was later found to have been raped and brutally murdered in Bhandup, her family on Monday held a memorial service for her in her native Machilipatnam. The victim’s father told Newsline that the service was attended by 400 people, who shared fond memories of the girl. The victim, a 24-year-old software engineer working with a software firm in Mumbai, went missing from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai early on the morning of January 5, 2014.

She was last seen in CCTV footage walking with an unidentified man a short while after she reached LTT, after spending Christmas and New Year with her family in her native place. Her severely decomposed body was subsequently found in Bhandup on the Eastern Express Highway on January 16, and on March 2, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch arrested Chandrabhan Sanap, a history-sheeter, from near the Kanjurmarg Railway station.

“We held a memorial service for my daughter at a church near our house from 11 am to 3 pm on Monday. All of our family members, as well as her friends had come from as far as Bangalore and Chennai to attend the service. We sang carols in her memory and several of us shared our memories about her,” the victim’s father said.

Her father added, “My younger daughter was especially moved while talking about her elder sister. She spoke about her with tears in her eyes. I myself have not fully healed yet. It is a deep wound and take some time to heal. On Monday evening, I also spoke to a Crime Branch officer, who updated me about the status of the case.”

The case is now being tried in a fast track court, and witnesses named by the Crime Branch in its chargesheet are being examined.

“So far, a total of 18 witnesses have been examined and they have all testified to seeing Sanap either at LTT or in the victim’s company. The next hearing is scheduled for January 13,” said an officer.

First uploaded on: 06-01-2015 at 00:59 IST

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