The body of a suspected pickpocket, who was thrashed to death by commuters in a BEST bus in Kurla last month, has been finally handed over to his relatives by the Nehru Nagar police. According to the police, they have got information about the deceased’s relatives from an undelivered letter at the Wadala post office.

On the night of June 20, a 23-year-old youth, who was suspected to be a pickpocket, aboard an overcrowded BEST bus on the Kurla station-Nehrunagar route, was beaten up by commuters. On way to Sion Hospital, he had revealed to the police that his name was Vijaykumar Ayodhya Prasad Tripathi. After two days, he succumbed to grievous head injuries in the hospital.

“He told us that he was a resident of Ganesh Nagar slum in Wadala but wasn’t able to give us any specific details. We had even sent a team to locate his house and relatives but were unsuccessful in finding either. His fingerprints had also been sent to the fingerprinting bureau to ascertain whether he was on police records, but reached a dead end there also. For a fortnight, his body had been lying in the morgue even as our attempts to trace his family continued. Eventually we got a breakthrough in the form of a letter,” Senior Police Inspector P B Kale of the Nehru Nagar police station.

“As we couldn’t find his relatives or friends, we tried to find whether his name was on the electoral roll. In this regard, we had paid a visit to the Wadala election office also. Then we approached the Wadala post office where we found a letter written by one Rajendra Ayodhya Prasad Tripathi. As the surname of the sender was the same as that of Vijaykumar, we suspected that he may be one of the relatives of the deceased,” said Kale.

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