New Delhi: After 21-year-old Akshat Pratap Singh shot his father dead in their home in Lucknow’s Aashiyana locality, he sat next to the body, wondering how to dispose of it. He then ordered knives online, and bought polybags, handsaws and a large blue drum.
To avoid suspicion, Akshat dragged his father’s body from the third to the ground floor of the family home, where he dismembered it into five-six pieces, police sources said.
He then disposed of the limbs but was left with the torso and head, which he wrapped in a polybag and blanket and hid at home inside the blue drum. Investigators suspect he planned to dispose of the remaining parts in the next few days.
On Monday night, Lucknow Police seized the blue drum from inside the ground floor, even as neighbours watched the scene unfold.
The murder, said police sources, was likely committed in a fit of rage after an argument between the father and son. A BBA student at La Martiniere College, Akshat was arrested by Lucknow police on murder charges Monday night. He lived with his 49-year-old father Manvendra and sister. The mother died in 2018, while the father owned a pathology lab and two liquor vends in Lucknow, one of which was Akshat managed.
The police probe began after Akshat filed a missing-person complaint, claiming his father left home Friday and had since been out of reach. “First, he claimed his father died by suicide, and eventually, he revealed that he killed his father using his licensed pistol,” said a police source, adding Akshat “kept building new lies as the story unfolded”.
After the killing, Akshat created a WhatsApp group titled “Papa Laut Aao”, adding Manvendra’s friends and associates and posting emotional messages asking his father to return home, it is learnt.
“During sustained interrogation, Akshat told us that he and his father had arguments over his future and career, and when it turned heated, Manvendra pointed the gun at Akshat’s head, and it escalated into Akshat pulling the trigger on his father,” the source added, referring to how Manvendra had been pressuring Akshat into appearing for the NEET exam, which Akshat had already attempted twice.
“The father-son duo had a long-standing dispute,” said another police source, adding that Akshat had in the past “tried running away from home, and stole jewellery as well”.
Akshat ordered a grinder
After Akshat dismembered Manvendra’s body using knives, he stuffed the limbs, as well as other body parts in a bag, and disposed of it near Sadaruna, on the outskirts of Lucknow. “He took his car, packed the hands and legs and disposed of them in isolated locations, which police have recovered under the Evidence Act,” said a third police source.
Forensic teams found bloodstains, signs of cleaning attempts, and suspicious marks in the boot of the family car. Chemical tests confirmed the presence of blood, it is learnt.
Akshat, police sources added, had also placed an order for a grinder but could not use it.
Police sources also said the gunshot caused heavy bleeding, staining blankets, bedsheets and pillows, and they also recovered pieces of flesh stuck to the fabric. Akshat packed these materials into polybags, and transported them to the Sadaruna canal bank, where he burned them in an attempt to eliminate evidence. Police also recovered partially burnt clothes and ashes from the site, which have been sent for forensic examination.
Along with other evidence, blood stains were also recorded inside the rooms. “He also sprayed the room with fresheners, to conceal the smell,” said the third police source.
Akshat, said the source, killed Manvendra in front of his sister and threatened her. “If you tell anybody about this, there will be consequences, is what Akshat told his sister,” the source added. The source also said Akshat’s uncle, who is in the police, was not at home at the time of the murder and told investigators that the 21-year-old “was good in studies till Class 12, but later regressed from the path and that worried Manvendra”.
According to the police, Akshat’s modus operandi was inspired from the Meerut “blue drum” murder case in which one Muskaan Rastogi planned husband Saurabh Rajput’s murder along with her lover. The duo chopped up the husband’s body and sealed it in a drum.
Akshat, it is suspected, read about the case on the internet.
DCP (Central Zone) Vikrant Vir said told the media Monday night that the police, upon receiving information that Manvendra was missing, traced his mobile phone’s last location to his pathology lab in Kakori, but were unable to recover the device.
In a bid to mislead, Akshat told family members that his father woke him up at 6 am, told him he was leaving for Delhi and would be back by afternoon. But the family grew anxious after all three of Manvendra’s phone numbers were switched off.
“During sustained interrogation, Akshat revealed he killed his father on 20 February, around 4.30 am. He then tried dismembering the body using a machine, and dragged it down from the third to the ground floor, inside a room,” the DCP told the media Monday.
On Wednesday, Akshat was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Lucknow court.
When reporters asked him why he murdered his father, the 21-year-old replied: “Galati se ho gaya.” (It happened by mistake.)
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)