Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday suspended four police personnel, including an Additional SP and a Circle Officer, for laxity in the probe into the kidnapping and murder of a lab technician in Kanpur.
The government also said Additional Director General (ADG-Police Headquarters) B P Jogdand will probe whether ransom was paid by the family of the lab technician or not.
“The state government after going through the matter has suspended ASP- South Aparna Gupta and then Circle Officer Manoj Kumar Gupta for their alleged laxity in probing the Kanpur kidnapping case,” according to an official statement.
Former SHO Barra Ranjit Rai and in-charge of the outpost Rajesh Kumar have also been suspended by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, it said.
The lab technician, who had been kidnapped last month, was killed within a week of being held captive, the police said.
The man’s family claimed that Rs 30 lakh ransom was paid for his release in the presence of police, but Circle Officer Vikas Pandey said the allegation was not true.
Senior Superintendent of Police (Kanpur) Dinesh Kumar Prabhu said on Friday that several key suspects were detained in connection with the case and grilled intensively, during which two of them confessed to the crime.
He said the accused initially tried to mislead the police, but later they disclosed that they kidnapped 27-year-old S Yadav, and killed him either on June 26 or June 27.
They further confessed that they disposed of Yadav’s body in Pandu river, the SSP said, adding that the accused had worked together with Yadav in another pathology lab.
The family had earlier appeared before the media and claimed that they had thrown a bag containing Rs 30 lakh from a flyover to railway tracks in the presence of police and also did whatever the kidnappers demanded, but the accused did not free the victim.
Circle Officer Vikas Pandey said that no ransom money was paid for his release in the presence of police and the allegation was not true.
He confirmed that five people, including a woman, were arrested in connection with the case.
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