Three years later, father to get young daughter's remains

Mumbai: In December last year, Upendra Rai, whose 3-yr-old daughter's skeleton was found buried at a construction site in 2009, had spoken to MiD DAY of the agony of having to wait two years just to be able to build a pyre for his slain child. The cops were refusing to release her remains to the parents citing ongoing investigations.

Though the sting of their protracted grief -- congealed by the fact that the slayer is yet to be identified -- can perhaps never be softened, the travail has yielded him at least and only one redeeming turn. "I've been told by the Bombay High Court that I can collect my daughter's remains in two days," 35-year-old Rai said, speaking to MiD DAY on Thursday.

But the discontent was apparent in his next utterance. "I am grateful to the court, but ultimately, justice has not been done. It took us two-and-a-half years to recover the remains, and the case has not been solved." The child, Shreya Rai, had gone missing on October 14 in 2009. Some 50 days later, her skeleton was found at a construction site 300 feet from the chawl where she lived.

Fight for rites
Shreya's remains had become part of the evidence collected to build a case. They stayed in the custody of the cops and the forensic lab, while Rai wore himself thin struggling to recover them so he could perform his daughter's last rites. Advocate Ashish Chavan, who represented Rai, said, "The court has ordered that the investigations be continued until their logical conclusion is reached, and that the chargesheet should be filed expeditiously."

Police had initially worked on the theory that Shreya was a victim of child sacrifice, according to reports by private forensic expert Roma Khan. Said Chavan, "The forensic report was based on the theory that the victim's head had been severed, but further examination revealed that rodents had gnawed at the neck muscle, making the decomposed remains look as if the head had been cut off."

Horrifying find
A local shopkeeper had discovered the girl's remains at Riddhi Siddhi complex, Borivli (E) after a foul odour had made residents of the neighbourhood uneasy. According to the police, the remains were found inside a jute bag, packed tightly with tin roof scraps. After cops reached the spot, they took the remains to Bhagwati hospital.

Shreya's father had suspected the role of a 10-year-old boy who had last seen Shreya with one of their neighbours. The boy, who was related to a local temple's head priest had been arrested and released on bail the next day.

The police said they grilled the boy but could not establish any motive or garner any leads. The child-sacrifice angle had turned out to be incorrect. After the local police failed to crack the case, it was transferred to the Crime Branch, but the murder mystery remains to be riddled out.