Mumbai: The investigations into the Sheena Bora murder case have drastically slowed down after former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria’s sudden exit, said police sources.
The police source said, “Our investigations have almost stopped. Mr Maria was spearheading the probe and was providing us with much-needed guidance and experience in such a high-profile case. The speed of the probe had doubled with his help,” adding, “I must say under his monitoring in a span of just 20 days, we managed to investigate and collect a lot of evidence. Several teams were formed which worked round-the-clock with great vigour and enthusiasm. Now the pace is lost and investigations are moving very slowly. It looks like it will take us 90 days to finish our probe now,” said the police source.
After the unceremonious exit of Mr Maria, who was given a promotion and transferred as DG (home guards and civil defence), many questions were raised in the media linking his transfer with the Sheena Bora murder case. Later, on the same day the home department came out with a statement that Mr Maria would continue to probe the murder case. However, Mr Maria reportedly showed reluctance to lead the case, as it was no longer under his jurisdiction. It is learnt that Mr Maria has not got a written order for the same. When contacted on Saturday to get clarity on the issue, additional chief secretary, home department, K.P. Bakshi did not answer our calls or reply to our text messages.
Mr Bakshi has been quoted by a leading daily as saying, “The police commissioner is expected to move the proposal to director general of police Sanjeev Dayal. After his approval, it will be submitted to the ACS home and an official order will be issued after the proposal is approved by the CM.”
