More than 10 years after assistant inspector Ashwini Bidre went missing, and over a year after a court convicted the man who murdered her, her family has finally received her death certificate. The Panvel Municipal Corporation issued the certificate on Friday, following repeated appeals by her husband Raju Gore and an order by an Executive Magistrate.

The certificate records Ashwini’s death based on the magistrate’s July 31 order. Her body has never been recovered.

Ashwini, then an assistant inspector with the Navi Mumbai Police, was last seen outside Kharghar railway station on April 11, 2016. Former police inspector Abhay Kurundkar was convicted of her murder by a Panvel sessions court on April 21, 2025, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Two other accused were sentenced to seven years. An appeal against the conviction is pending before the Bombay High Court.

The family’s struggle for a death certificate, however, continued even after the conviction. Gore approached the Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate, Thane Municipal Corporation, Thane Rural Police and authorities in Hatkanangale in Kolhapur, where the family is from.

“We have finally been issued a death certificate after the long delay,” Gore said.

Under the law, a person missing for seven years can be presumed dead, enabling legal heirs to seek succession, inheritance, insurance, gratuity, pension and other benefits. Gore had repeatedly said the absence of a death certificate had prevented the family from accessing such benefits.

In July 2025, the Mira Bhayander civic body told Gore that a death certificate could not be issued “only on the basis of the judgment”, citing the possibility of an appeal and suggesting that directions be sought from an appropriate court.

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The Panvel civic body had earlier said the alleged place of death fell outside its jurisdiction. The Hatkanangale panchayat said no court had directed it to issue the certificate, while acknowledging that seven years had passed since Ashwini went missing.

On July 31 this year, an Executive Magistrate ordered Panvel Municipal Corporation to issue the certificate. Even then, Gore had to write to authorities again on September 1, saying the document had not been issued.

It was finally issued four days later.

The death certificate now allows the family to begin the process of claiming the benefits that had remained pending for years.