However, DCP Rajian confirmed that the house belonged to Shamshuddin, the key suspect in the disappearance of Farzana. He had tried to sell the house about six years ago, but had been unsuccessful. The adjoining property was sold off to the Khans.In the hope of cracking an alleged murder, the city police on Wednesday demolished a house and evacuated another to dig the ground around it as they looked for the remains of a woman who went missing 34 years ago.At the far end of Qutubnagar Lane Number 3 in the Vatva area, an excavator dug through the floor of the house to reach an old drainage catchpit, called khaarkuva in local parlance. The attempt to exhume the remains of Farzana alias Shabnam, who was last seen alive in 1992, was taken up in the presence of an executive magistrate.With a green awning tied up on the roofs on either side, the forensic science laboratory (FSL) personnel poked through the mud with sticks and brooms, sifted through loose dust with a sieve, and collected possible fragments of human bone, teeth, and hair.The possibility of finding any trace of a person who went missing 34 years ago might be slim, since a human body decomposes in about 10 to 15 years.DCP Crime Ajit Rajian said, “We learnt through our sources that the victim’s body had been clandestinely disposed of inside a domestic drainage well located within the accused’s residence, allowing the crime to remain concealed for years.”On how the crime came to light, DCP Rajian, quoting the woman’s kin, said, “The breakthrough came following a peculiar development within the suspect’s family, whose members reportedly began experiencing recurring hallucinations of the deceased. To seek relief, they turned to occult practices and remedies… Later, the Crime Branch initiated a focused inquiry that ultimately led to the discovery of the remains and the unraveling of the long-buried crime.”While the police believed that the remains were of Farzana alias Shabnam, they stated that the key accused, now suspected deceased, was a man named Shamshuddin. Preliminary inquiries with neighbours led to mixed results at best, but the police said, “A few possible co-accused and eyewitnesses are being questioned by the Crime Branch.”Story continues below this adAlso, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team reportedly identified a fragment of bone from the collected pieces of evidence, which was to be recorded in the ‘panchnama’ (inquest) before being sent to the Forensic Medicine Department of BJ Medical College. Meanwhile, the team said they would keep digging until they reached the bottom of the drainage well.Kapure said: “Experts in forensic medicine will first identify these bones, teeth and hair fragments, as to whether they belong to a human or animal. And, if they are of a human, then whether they are the remains of a male or female. From there, the samples will be sent to the FSL for DNA analysis, which will be cross-referenced to the samples of living relatives sent by the police to get the identity of the deceased person.”The abandoned house, which was demolished completely in the process of investigation, was previously one property divided into two and passed down to the heirs of one Salyabibi. The residents of the other half of the house, Shabbir Khan and his wife Sairabanu, who already had to remove their overhead water tank and vacate their kitchen since it shared a wall with the adjoining house that was being dug up, were on Wednesday afternoon asked by the police to evacuate their home temporarily as the excavator was to dig deeper to reach the ‘khaarkuva’.Sitting outside and wincing every time the scoop of the excavator machine went near the wall, Sairabanu said, “We bought this house just four years ago. We only know that the original owner of the entire property, Salyabibi, had bequeathed half of the house, being dug up, to her son, and our part of the house, to her daughter. We bought it from her.” Khan said that the police had orally promised reimbursement for any damage.Story continues below this adMost of the other neighbours claimed to have no knowledge of the family that had lived here earlier and said that the house had been empty for a long time.However, DCP Rajian confirmed that the house belonged to Shamshuddin, the key suspect in the disappearance of Farzana. He had tried to sell the house about six years ago, but had been unsuccessful. The adjoining property was sold off to the Khans.Meanwhile, it was learnt that there had never even been a missing person’s report filed after Farzana’s disappearance. But the Crime Branch, which managed to track and contact her brother in Mumbai, said that it was likely he filed a report with Maharashtra Police. The brother has now been asked to give a DNA sample so that it can be matched with the samples that will be drawn from the remains found underneath the house.Even as further investigation was underway, the long-awaited FIR could now be filed in a couple of days. Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujarat. He covers the region's most critical social, legal, and administrative sectors, notably specializing at the intersection of health, social justice, and disasters. Expertise Health and Public Policy: He has deep expertise in healthcare issues, including rare diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the complex logistics of organ transplants, and public health challenges like drug-resistant TB and heat health surveillance. His on-ground reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and Mucormycosis was critical in exposing healthcare challenges faced by marginalized communities in Gujarat. Social Justice and Legal Administration: He reports on the functioning of the legal and police system, including the impact of judicial philosophy, forensics and crucial administrative reforms (. He covers major surveillance and crackdown exercises by the Gujarat police and security on the international border. Disaster and Crisis Management: His work closely tracks how government and civic bodies respond to large-scale crises, providing essential coverage on the human and administrative fallout of disasters including cyclones, floods, conflict, major fires and reported extensively on the AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad. Civic Infrastructure and Governance: Provides timely reports on critical civic failures, including large scale infrastructure projects by the railways and civic bodies, as well as the enforcement of municipal regulations and their impact on residents and heritage. ... 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