More than three years after the tragic death of Anshi Ittoo and her lover, Tagoresingh Sandooram, the Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT) has expressed suspicions about the dead girl?s brother, Bipin. He was arrested on Tuesday, provisionally charged with the murder of the two lovers and is still in police custody. His cousin, Nitin Dawoojee, was also taken in for questioning but he was released later the same day.

After three years without any progress in this case, even if the police had realised their deaths were not by suicide but presumably the result of foul play, the enquiry had not gone further? until the MCIT, led by SP Prem Raddhoa, announced they had ?strong circumstantial evidence? against those two members of Anshi?s family last Tuesday.

While Anshi Ittoo always used to go to school by car with her father, she is said to have taken the bus on that fateful date of 11th November 2002 because the car had broken down and had to be repaired. This is where the alibi of the two young men comes into account.

Anshi Ittoo?s brother had problems to explain his timetable to the police. According to the MCIT, his explanation saying that he had been to a garage to look for car spare parts is too confused and not satisfactory to the investigators. ?There are a lot of contradictions in their timetable?, revealed an MCIT member. But this is not the only reason that led them to believe that Bipin Ittoo could have something to do with his sister?s death.

<B>Feeling threatened</B>

The MCIT can?t understand why Anshi Ittoo?s family was not on the crime site when her body was removed from Bassin-Blanc lake. Even though this could be attributed to their state of shock at the announcement of the bad news, MCIT members find it suspect. From their experience, even though the vision of a relative?s dead body is a hard moment, all parents usually come on the site for that purpose.

But even more disturbing is the statement of one of Tagoresingh Sandooram?s relatives to the police after his death that the latter had allegedly mentioned threats and being ?chased? by one of Anshi?s relatives. But so far the Ittoo family have denied most of the accusations made by the MCIT.

The latter intend to question other members of the Ittoo family, who have expressed their fears of being arrested like the two others. Anshi?s father said he did not understand why the police were opening old wounds by suspecting close relatives. His lawyer, Yousuf Mohamed, intends to ask the court for release of Bipin Ittoo.

As for Nitin Dawoojee, he made a statement to the police after being released alleging he had been ?manhandled? by the MCIT officers.