Lucknow: Four days after an aide of Union minister Kaushal Kishore’s son was shot inside their house at Dubagga area in Lucknow, two purported CCTV videos have surfaced from the crime scene.
The videos purportedly depict some of the events before the murder of Vinay Srivastava for which three aides of Vikas Kishore, the minister’s son, were arrested Friday evening.
Ankit Verma, Ajay Rawat and Shamim alias Baba were arrested for allegedly killing Vinay after a fight broke out following a gambling session, the police said. Vinay was found dead with a gunshot in the head.
Two other suspects were also detained in this connection, the police said.
As the pistol belonged to Vikas Kishore, police lodged a separate FIR against him under Section 30 of the Arms Act. A notice was issued Monday asking Vikas to appear before the police, Thakurganj SHO Vikas Rai, the investigating officer in the case, said.
Subsequently, Vikas was questioned by Thakurganj police for about two hours Tuesday evening. Sources in the police said that Vikas admitted negligence in keeping the licenced pistol at the house, but denied involvement in the murder.
On Friday, the police said that the four men and two other suspects — Arun Pratap Singh alias Bunty and Saurabh Pratap — gathered at the house between 2 am and 2:50 am on the intervening night of 31 August and 1 September after boozing and then sat for gambling. Vinay lost Rs 12,000 to Saurabh and Bunty in the session, the police said.
Ankit, Ajay and Shamim stopped the game after which Saurabh and Bunty left the place, the police said, adding that a fight ensued as Vinay blamed them for siding with the duo and deliberately intervening in the game.
What videos suggest
While the police initially said the murder took place around 4:15 am, the videos of the CCTV footage suggest that the murder took place within minutes of Bunty and Saurabh exiting the house.
ThePrint has the videos from the footage.
Vinay and Ajay Rawat are seen in one of the videos. The other video shows Bunty exiting the house. The two videos were captured at a gap of one minute.
In the first video from a CCTV camera installed outside the minister’s house, Bunty exits the house at 4:07 am on Friday and enters a car parked outside.
The other video is from inside one of the rooms in which Vinay is seen entering another room and Ajay following him after picking the pistol of the minister’s son from under a pillow at 4:08 am, a minute after Bunty’s exit.
Footage of the camera installed in the third room is unavailable as it was not working, Vinay’s family has alleged.
Bunty and Saurabh were detained and being questioned, DCP (West Lucknow) Rahul Raj told ThePrint. “We are probing all angles. The investigation is still open,” he added.
He, however, refused to make a statement on the veracity of the two videos.
Vinay’s family had alleged that while the police said that the six men consumed alcohol and were gambling, they had not spotted any bottles or pack of cards in the house when they reached there in the morning.
The police, however, maintained that the six men had boozed before entering the house around 2 am. “They had gathered at the house after taking drinks outside the house. 52 cards have been recovered from the spot,” the DCP (West Lucknow) said.
Kin suspect property dispute
Vinay’s family is not convinced by the police explanation that he was killed after a fight with Ankit, Ajay and Shamim. His mother and brother suspect the role of Bunty and Saurabh in the murder as the former and Vinay had a joint share in a 52-bigha plot in Lucknow’s Andhe Ki Chowki area.
Vinay’s younger brother Vikrant Srivastava said that they have informed the police about the possibility of involvement of Bunty and Saurabh because of the property.
“The police detained them and are questioning it. We have informed the police about the land and suggested that it is possible that he (Bunty) wanted to take the entire share of the land,” he told ThePrint.
Vinay’s mother Chhaya Srivastava, too, had expressed the apprehension Friday.
The family has also alleged that days before the murder, Vinay uploaded a sad status update on Instagram about how the “entry of a third person should not affect friendship between two persons”.
The DCP (West Lucknow) confirmed that the likelihood of the murder taking place during the fight over the gambling loss as well as the property angle were under investigation.
He further told ThePrint that a notice was issued to Vikas Kishore by the investigating officer as his licensed pistol was used in the murder. The officer will ask the minister’s son about where and in what circumstances he had left the pistol, he added.
Asked about the property angle in the murder, the senior police officer said that the SHO was instructed to speak to the family and to consider all their points in the investigation.
(Edited by Tony Rai)