The village official in Raigad district, who helped the Mumbai Police locate the spot where Sheena Bora was allegedly buried, on Sunday said when he first spotted the body in 2012 it was just a skeleton with no flesh.
“It was all skeleton. There was no flesh. The local government doctor took it for post-mortem, after which it was buried,” Police Patil Ganesh <g data-gr-id="28">Dhene</g> of <g data-gr-id="29">Hetevne</g> village said.
Asked how he came across the skeletal remains, <g data-gr-id="37">Dhene</g> said: “I had gone to collect mangoes. The body was not in a suitcase. The surrounding area was burnt.”
Asked if the area was burnt as a result of petrol being poured over the body, <g data-gr-id="39">Dhene</g> said: “I don’t know if it was burnt by petrol or something else.”
A team of police, forensic experts and villagers had on Friday exhumed skeletal remains after <g data-gr-id="40">Dhene</g> identified the spot where Sheena’s body was allegedly dumped in the forest three years ago.
The team from Mumbai had reached Gagode Budruk village in Pen <g data-gr-id="36">teshil</g> of Raigad and the digging started around 6 am on Friday.
Around noon, having dug just a couple of feet into the ground, the team sighted a portion of the skeleton sticking out.
They learnt about Police Patil Ganesh <g data-gr-id="32">Dhene</g> of <g data-gr-id="33">Hetevne</g> village, who was present when the body was found at the crime scene on May 23, 2012, and also when it was later buried there by the police the same day.
<g data-gr-id="31">Dhene</g>, who has been Police Patil since 2011, remembered that the body was buried near a mango tree in 2012, which helped in identifying the spot and leading the police team there.
As per the Bombay Village Police Act, a Police Patil is directly subordinate to the Police department and the taluka magistrate. In case a crime is committed in the limits of village, he makes immediate report to the police station and renders necessary help to the police officer to detect the offender.