The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday recommended a CBI inquiry into the kidnapping and murder of a Kanpur lab technician whose family had accused the police of allegedly allowing the kidnappers to escape with a ransom of ₹30 lakh.
“The State government has decided to recommend CBI inquiry for the incident in Barra Kanpur on the request of the family,” a government spokesperson said.
On July 24, an IPS officer was among 11 police personnel suspended for negligence. It was found that lab technician Sanjeet Yadav had been killed and his body dumped into a river in June.
Five persons, including a woman, were arrested on charges of kidnap and murder, police said. The accused were known to him and two of them worked with him at a previous lab.
Sanjeet had gone missing since June 23 following which an FIR was lodged under charges of kidnapping on June 26. The first random call received by his family was on June 29, said police.
Sanjeet’s family had alleged that he was kidnapped in June, following which they were asked to arrange a ransom of ₹30 lakh and hand it over to the kidnappers. The family claimed they threw a bag containing the cash on a road from the top of a flyover as instructed in the presence of police force who could not prevent the kidnappers from escaping with the bag and also failed to get Sanjeet back.
The arrested persons had confessed to police that Sanjeet was murdered on June 26 or 27 by them along with other friends and they dumped the body in the Pandu river, the district police chief said last month.
The accused were identified by the police as Gyanendra Yadav, Kuldeep Goswami, Neelu Singh, Ramji Shukla and Preeti Sharma. They had rented a flat for ₹15,000 in Barra area on June 15 as per a plan to kidnap someone for ransom.
On June 22, around 7.47 p.m., Kuldeep called Sanjeet four times on his phone and barely he had crossed 500 metres on his motorcycle from his workplace that the four men took him in a car saying they were going for Gyanendra’s birthday party.
The accused and Sanjeet started drinking alcohol in the car but the victim’s drink was laced with a sedative. Unconscious, he was taken to the rented apartment where the accused took turns to keep a watch over him in the following days, said police. Only Kuldeep would go to his daily duty during this time.
On June 26, Sanjeet tried to escape, and the next day the accused strangulated him with a rope as they feared getting caught, said police.
The body was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown into the Pandu river.
