Chembur Violence Case: GRP sent dead girl's photo, but local cops ignored it

The role of the Nehru Nagar police in the Aarti Rithadiya missing person's case has come under the scanner with the railway police confirming that they had uploaded the teenager's photograph on the state police website on March 30, 2019, the very day she was found dead.

The Nehru Nagar cops, however, had uploaded her details a month later on the Mumbai police website. Centralised data and proper coordination could have helped them crack the case in no time but that did not happen. Even as how Aarti's case was probed over the past one year comes to the fore, it becomes clear that if the officers had followed the standard operating procedure (SOP), then her father's life could have at least been saved.

Time and again, the Nehru Nagar cops have said that they tried their best to locate the girl but the fact that they never came across the details of the girl put up by the GRP on Maharashtra police's website of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System the same day her body was found on tracks, shows that they did not follow proper procedure. The cops have also claimed that the information was not circulated by the GRP. The GRP confirmed to mid-day that the accidental death report (ADR) was shared with all the nearby police stations, including Nehru Nagar, on the day Aarti's body was recovered. The details were also shared on Mumbai and Railway police's common WhatsApp group. Speaking to mid-day, DCP M Makandar of Central Railway GRP, said, "The details were shared with the police station concerned on the very same day. We don't see any negligence."

Manju Rithadiya, Aarti's mother

Requesting anonymity, a senior GRP officer said, "When an unclaimed body is found, we immediately share the ADR with all the nearby police stations. We also check the details of the missing person with police stations based on the location from where it has been recovered. If we find any connection of a missing person with the body then we immediately inform the police station concerned. In this case, the officer who had found the body checked missing person's complaints of nearby police stations on the Mumbai police website but didn't find any match." Another goof-up that has come to the fore is that the Nehru Nagar police uploaded Aarti's details on the Mumbai police website only on April 25, 2019, almost a month after the GRP recovered her body. Confirming this, senior PI, Vilas Shinde, said, "We registered the kidnapping case on April 25 last year and hence the website has the same date."

Retired IPS officer, P K Jain, said, "This is something very basic. The SOP needs to be followed in missing cases. The investigating officer must generate a message for all police stations about the missing person and also check information regarding missing cases on the websites. This also shows that missing cases are not taken seriously. Senior officers must take action if such carelessness in the investigation is established." When contacted, Aarti's mother, Manju Rithadiya, said, "It's extremely surprising that details were available on the websites. This proves that the cops did nothing to trace my daughter. If they had checked the details properly, they could have reached out to us the same day she went missing. And even my husband would have been alive."

Oct 13
Day Aarti's father killed himself

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