A 25-year-old accountant, abducted a fortnight back, was found murdered on Tuesday in Kanpur dehat district of Uttar Pradesh, even as a string of such incidents in recent days has prompted the state police chief to warn district officers against any laxity in handling kidnapping complaints.
The body of Brajesh Pal was found from a dry well in village Kanha Kheda, Devrahat, police said, adding Subodh Sachan (35), a truck owner and key accused in the case, was arrested.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to Brajesh Pal”s family .He directed the officers to consider invoking the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the accused and fix responsibility of policemen in the case.
Facing flak, the state Director General of Police (DGP) Hitesh Awasthi issued directives to all district police chiefs asking them to ensure there is a prompt probe in kidnapping complaints and the victims are safely rescued.
A statement issued here by the police department said that the DGP”s directives, “which are routine”, included immediate registration of FIR and spot inspection by senior officers.
The DGP said that no laxity will be tolerated in such cases and added that if it is alleged by victim”s family that kidnapping was done for any particular motive, it should be mentioned in the FIR.
The directives said that teams of senior officers should be constituted to work out such cases and within 24 hours photographs and details of victims should be sent to other states also for their help, if needed.
He said that for working out such incidents, help of NGOs such as anti-human trafficking, child line and other organisations could also be taken.
The police claimed that he was murdered hours after he was kidnapped. Superintendent of Police (Kanpur Dehat), Anurag Vats said that the surveillance team played a key role in cracking the case.Pal, a resident of Bhognipur, was kidnapped on the intervening night of July 15 and July 16.
“The arrested accused Subodh Sachan used to regularly call to Brajesh whom he texted to come at a place to have a liquor party. They consumed cold drinks but the victim”s cold drink was laced with intoxicants,” the SP added.
Pal lost consciousness and Subodh strangulated him and dumped the body in a dry well in Devrahat area, he said.After disposing of the body, Subodh had made a ransom call to his family to clear his debt. “He, however, dropped his idea to make further ransom calls after witnessing police’s alertness,” the SP added.
The SSP said sub-inspector Digvijay Singh and constables Pradeep Singh and Surendra Tiwari of Pipraich Police station have been suspended for carelessness in handling the case.Police had nabbed the kidnappers on Sunday night itself and during interrogation, they disclosed that they had killed the boy soon after kidnapping him.
