But it was only on Thursday that the police could trace her to the mortuary of Sion hospital, where the body had been preserved for the last 10 months.(Representational)

KURLA-BASED teenager Aarti Rithadiya had gone missing last March and died the same day after being run over by a train. But it was only on Thursday that the police could trace her to the mortuary of Sion hospital, where the body had been preserved for the last 10 months.

Last October, Aarti’s father Pancharam Rithadiya had committed suicide assuming that his daughter had been kidnapped and the police were not in a position to trace her.

Aarti, a resident of Nehru Nagar in Kurla (East), had gone missing on March 30, 2019. Pancharam, who had got a missing person case filed at the Nehru Nagar police station, went on to commit suicide by coming in front of a train in Kurla. In a suicide note, while blaming the local police for inaction, he had named five persons from the area and held them responsible for the kidnapping and his suicide.

The five were arrested and are still in jail. The Bombay High Court eventually transferred the case to the Crime Branch, which found Aarti’s remains at Sion hospital — barely 5 km from her residence — on Thursday.

She was identified by the police with the help of her clothes and photographs procured from the hospital.

In these 10 months, both the Nehru Nagar police and the Wadala Government Railway Police (GRP) failed to realise that a body found on the tracks around the time Aarti went missing was actually hers.

An officer from Crime Branch (Unit VI), which traced the body, while blaming the GRP, said: “We had written to the GRP seeking to know if any body had been found during the time the girl went missing. They replied in the negative… this was highly negligent on their part. We looked into all cases of unidentified bodies across the city, which eventually helped us identify the girl at Sion hospital.”

However, Wadala GRP Senior Inspector Rajendra Bal, said: “The Crime Branch team had come to our police station and checked our register for bodies that were found on tracks. It was only after they could not identify the body that we sent the letter.”

He further alleged that the Nehru Nagar police, which was probing missing person case, was informed that an unidentified body had been found by the GRP. “We had written to the Nehru Nagar police, informing that an unidentified body had been found two or three days after Aarti went missing. They, however, did not even check with us. It was their case, they should have approached us.”

While Nehru Nagar Senior Inspector Vilas Shinde did not answer calls, Zonal Deputy Commissioner Shashi Meena said the police team had followed all procedures. “We wrote to all police stations and the GRP. I will have to check if we had written to the Wadala GRP as well. We were investigating the case as per the complaint filed by the girl’s father, who alleged that local residents had kidnapped her. We also sent a team to Rajasthan, her native place, to look for her.”

Alleging that the probe conducted by the Nehru Nagar police was flawed, a GRP officer said: “They thought the girl had run away with someone and did not explore the angle that she may have actually died.”

A Crime Branch officer said, “Now, the railway police should investigate if the girl committed suicide and if so, why.”