Man abducted, killed by friend
nLUCKNOW: A 29-year-old man’s friend allegedly masterminded his kidnapping in Kanpur for ransom on June 22 and killed him five days later with of help of his five accomplices fearing the plan may go awry after the former tried to escape from captivity, the Uttar Pradesh police said on Friday. The kidnappers continued making ransom calls after murdering Sanjeet Yadav and allegedly received money as part of a botched police ploy to trap them, prompting the state government to order a high-level probe into their conduct and inaction alleged by his family.
Inspector general (IG) of police (Kanpur Range) Mohit Agarwal said five of the six accused— Gyanendra Yadav alias Ishu, Kuldeep Goswami, Neelu Singh, Ramji Shukla, and Preeti Sharma—have been arrested. He added they were looking for the six accused, Simmy Singh, who remains on the run. He added Ishu, Sanjeet Yadav’s friend, masterminded the kidnapping with the help of the other accused.
IG Agarwal said the captors stuffed Sanjeet Yadav’s body in a plastic bag and threw it in the Pandu river on Kanpur’s outskirts. He added the kidnappers started making ransom calls from June 29 and first demanded ₹50 lakh and later accepted ₹30 lakh after negotiations. Agarwal said Sanjeet Yadav’s family alleged they paid the ransom amount and Barra police station in-charge, Ranjeet Rai and other police officers (the Additional SP and CO, who were suspended in the matter), knew about it as it was a part of the plan to trap the kidnappers on July 13. He said the plan failed as the kidnappers turned out to be smarter and asked the family to throw the bag carrying ransom money from a flyover after making them travel several kilometres. “Those arrested claimed they had not received ransom but the family claimed that they paid. This is yet to be verified,” he said.
“Inspector Ranjeet Rai and a sub-inspector Ramesh Kumar were earlier suspended for negligence in the matter around 10 days ago.”
Additional police superintendent Aparna Gupta, and circle officer Manoj Gupta were suspended on Friday for their negligence in the case.
The state government named additional director general of police Bhagirath P Jogdand to probe the controversy over the ransom. Jogdand will also probe the police negligence, how the kidnappers managed to escape after calling the victim’s family to a certain place and their claims of paying the ransom amount, according to a statement released by the state government.