Mira Road: Nine years after police sub inspector Ashwini Bidre was brutally murdered and three persons sentenced in connection with the crime, the family continues to struggle to obtain an official death certificate.

Expressing deep disappointment over the inability to get death certificate which is causing problems for the couple’s daughter Suchi, Bidre’s husband Raju Gore said, “It’s deeply unfortunate that even after a court verdict, we are still struggling to get a basic document like a death certificate. It has been over a month since the judgment, and yet there’s no progress,” he said.

The Bidre-Gore family initially approached the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the death certificate. However, the authorities there denied the request, stating they could not issue the document. The family then approached the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), which also refused to help claiming that the local tehsildar was the competent authority to issue the certificate as several years had passed since Bidre’s death.

With no other option, the family submitted an application to the additional tehsildar in Bhayandar. The family was assured that the matter would be reviewed from a legal standpoint and a decision would be taken accordingly. For the family, however, there is no resolution in sight.

No date has been provided as to when the death certificate will be issued by the tehsildar, Gore added.

Bidre was murdered on April 11, 2016 and her dismembered body was dumped in the Vasai Creek. On April 21, a sessions court in Panvel convicted three persons. Senior police inspector Abhay Kurundkar was sentenced to life imprisonment, while two others – Kundan Bhandari and Mahesh Phalnikar – who had helped Kurundkar destroy evidence and dispose of the body were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment.