Lounge owner, wife and brother arrested for manager’s murder
LUCKNOW: A lounge owner, his wife and his brother were arrested from their hideout in the Talkatora area of the state capital on Saturday night for allegedly pushing a lounge manager Prashant Pandey, 35, off a building on Wednesday night and causing his death, the city police said on Sunday. The trio, who had been untraceable after the incident, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, torture, murder and concealment of evidence, the police said.
Additional superintendent of police (ASP), West, Vikas Chandra Tripathi said those arrested were identified as Mohd Saif Salim, the owner of God Father lounge, his wife Zainab and brother Mohd Amir Salim.
Pandey, who worked at the lounge at a commercial-cum residential complex on BN Road in Qaiserbagh, had died after falling from the fourth floor of the building on Wednesday night.
The lounge owner, along with his family, stayed in a flat on the same floor of the building. They disappeared after the murder.
The ASP said the digital video recorder of the CCTV cameras installed at the building was also recovered from them. The police were trying to retrieve the footage from DVR to ascertain the sequence of incidents.
“The probe so far has revealed that the two brothers Saif and Amir forcibly took Prashant Pandey from his Rajajipuram house, accusing him of financial irregularities and tortured him after taking him to their flat. Later, they pushed him off the fourth floor, causing his death,” the ASP said. “Saif’s wife is accused of concealment of evidence as she took the DVR before disappearing from the flat after the incident,” he said.
The victim’s brother Pankaj Pandey earlier lodged an FIR against Saif and others under Indian Penal Code sections 364 for kidnapping and 323 for voluntarily causing hurt on Wednesday. The IPC section 302 of murder was added in the FIR after Prashant’s death. Later, charges under section 201 of the IPC for concealment of evidence were added during the course of the investigation.