Kalyan: CCTV cameras installed at the farmhouse where a 22-year-old married woman was allegedly gang-raped have been found without their digital video recorder (DVR), raising suspicion that the recording device may have been removed after the incident. Police noticed the missing DVR during a spot panchnama conducted at the farmhouse as part of the investigation.Police are considering adding a provision relating to destruction or tampering with evidence to the case based on the findings of the investigation. However, their immediate priority is to trace and arrest former BJP MLA Narendra Pawar and dismissed police personnel Shailesh Patil, who have been named as accused in the case and are currently absconding.Thane rural police have formed six teams to trace the two accused and are checking their possible hideouts and movements. Investigators have also placed the mobile phone numbers of the two accused, as well as some of their close associates, under surveillance to track their locations and movements.Two police teams had also reached Mumbai airport while searching for the accused, following information that they could potentially leave the city. However, the police did not find either of the accused there.According to police sources, CCTV cameras were installed at the farmhouse, but the DVR that stored the footage was not found. Investigators are examining whether the DVR was deliberately removed and whether its disappearance was an attempt to tamper with or destroy evidence related to the case.Investigators are now examining the available evidence from the farmhouse and questioning people connected with the property and the accused.The FIR was registered by Padgha police after the woman approached Congress’s KDMC group leader Kanchan Kulkarni, who helped her get the FIR registered. The woman alleged she was taken to a farmhouse in Bapgaon, where the accused allegedly sexually assaulted her at gunpoint. Police are continuing efforts to trace the two accused.
