‘LAX APPROACH’ OF COPS LEADS TO DEATH OF MASON’S DAUGHTER

LUCKNOW : The Lucknow police faced flak for displaying a lackadaisical attitude in the kidnapping of a mason’s six-year-old daughter from Madiaon area on March 15. Three days later, the child’s decomposed body was found hanging in the thickets of Mal village -- roughly 30 kilometres from her house.

The alleged police negligence led to the suspension of sub-inspector Veer Pal and transfer of inspector in-charge of Madiaon police station Amar Nath Yadav.

The girl’s father said he reached out to the Madiaon police soon after the Class 2 student failed to return home from the private school where she studied.

He said the police initially asked him to search for his daughter on his own. An FIR of kidnapping, under IPC section 363, was lodged only after several hours had passed.

The father also said he immediately suspected the role of a couple who lived in his neighbourhood, Brijesh and his wife Asha, in the child’s disappearance and shared the same with the police. He said the couple had threatened to kidnap his daughter on an earlier occasion.

Accusing the police of negligence, the father said his little girl’s life could have been saved had the police acted promptly and grilled the couple for information.

He alleged that while the Madiaon police took the couple for interrogation on March 15 and March 16, the duo was freed later.

Ironically, once the girl’s body was recovered on March 18, this same couple was arrested for kidnapping her and taking her to their native village Lodhakheda before they killed her.

The police also claimed that the couple committed the crime to take revenge, as they blamed the victim’s father for the disappearance of their 17-year-old daughter who reportedly went missing on March 10.

ASP Trans-Gomti Harendra Kumar said, “The police are further probing the sequence of events -how the girl was kidnapped and murdered. Action has been taken against those whose negligence was found in the incident.”