Family of man found dead in JNU had reported him missing last month
NEWDELHI: A police complaint that Rampravesh Singh, whose decomposed body was found hanging from a tree inside JNU campus on Tuesday, had gone missing was filed at RK Puram police station last month, it has now emerged.
Yet, the police failed to trace him and eventually discovered his body just over 3km away from RK Puram police station where his family had lodged the complaint on December 13.
The revelation was made by the police on Wednesday even as they were yet to piece together the sequence from his disappearance to death. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West) Milind Dumbere said it has now emerged that Rampravesh Singh was a resident of south Delhi’s Mohammadpur where he lived with his family.
“When the family members could not contact him for a couple of days, they reported the matter to us. We were searching for him but could not find. The family, meanwhile, returned to their hometown in Bihar. They are on their way to Delhi and we would speak to them once they arrive,” said Dumbere.
The police had initially said that Singh was a resident of Najafgarh only to declare later that he had vacated the rented house whose address was mentioned in the documents recovered from him. On the steps taken by the police to search him after the receipt of the complaint, Dumbere claimed the due process was followed including tracing of phone location before it went off, distribution of pictures and even local enquiries. “But none of these things yielded any results,” said Dumbere.
“We have had brief conversations with his wife and son and they have not been able to provide information about his work. Since there were signal issues with the telephone network, we would wait for them to come here and gather more,” said Dumbere.
The post mortem will be conducted on Thursday after the family identifies Singh.
The report will establish the exact time of death which was earlier suspected to have happened six to seven days ago. “Since the period of missing is now confirmed to be longer than that, it could have happened earlier,” said another investigator.
RAMPRAVESH SINGH’S FAMILY REGISTERED A MISSING COMPLAINT AT RK PURAM POLICE STATION ON DEC 13