Suicide turns out to be a planned murder, one held

LUCKNOW: Investigation revealed that the death of a 28-year-old private firm executive Pradeep Pal, cited as a suicide in the postmortem examination report, turned out to be a preplanned murder, said police on Friday.

The murder was a fall-out of the alleged illicit relations of the victim, they said.

Pradeep’s body was found under a tree in an orchard near Umari village on IIM road in Madiaon on Monday morning. His motorcycle and a scarf were also recovered from the spot.

Circle officer (CO) of Aliganj, Swatantra Kumar Singh, who was supervising the case, said the police were puzzled when the post-mortem examination report confirmed the victim’s death due to ante-mortem hanging, as is usually the case in a suicide .

“However, we had a marathon discussion and finally decided to at least check the victim’s call details and other basic things before jumping to a final conclusion,” he said, adding, “Our efforts paid as the phone call details pointed out suspicious movement of a person who last called him”.

The CO said the police team zeroed in on Pradeep’s distant relative Anurag Pal, who stayed as a tenant at the victim’s house in Rahimnagar, Dudauli on IIM road, but had left around 30 months ago.

“Investigation revealed that Anurag left Pradeep’s house as he suspected the latter of having illicit relations with his wife,” he said.

Anurag was found missing from his rented house in Semra

POLICE SAID THE MURDER WAS A FALL-OUT OF ALLEGED ILLICIT RELATIONS OF THE VICTIM

Gadi locality in Madiaon and picked from his relative’s place in Machreta, Sitapur for quizzing.

He said Anurag revealed during interrogation that he planned to murder Pradeep as despite warnings he continued to make calls to his wife.

“As a plan, he first renewed his friendship with the victim and offered him liquor on the night of September 15. He took him along to a deserted place near Umari village and made him heavily drunk,” the CO said.

Anurag tightened a scarf around Pradeep’s neck when he was resting on his motorcycle seat with his head towards pillion carrier stand.

“While struggling to free himself, Pradeep fell down from the motorcycle seat but Anurag did not let go of the scarf around his neck. He continued pulling the scarf until Pradeep’s body stopped moving,” he said, explaining how the cause of death was mentioned as antemortem hanging in the postmortem examination report.