Missing PWD clerk found dead, wife cries foul

LUCKNOW: Missing clerk of Public Works Department (PWD) Sanjay Singh, who had levelled charges against senior officials of his department for being involved in a multi-crore scam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

His body was found on the roadside near Darogakheda village in Sarojininagar on Sunday night, but his identity was ascertained by his wife Sushma Singh on Wednesday.

The deceased’s wife has alleged foul play and suspected involvement of PWD officials behind her husband’s death as he attempted to blow the lid off the multi crore scam in Faizabad division of the PWD.

“Sushma Singh had also mentioned the name of an executive engineer in the FIR of kidnapping lodged with Vikas Nagar police station on October 5 after her husband’s disappearance since September 30. However, the inquiry for fraudulently procuring the job was already going on against the deceased and the executive engineer had also recommended Singh’s termination after conducting a probe into the matter,” said Arun Kumar Singh, station officer (SO) of Vikas Nagar police station.

He said the department had also lodged an FIR against the deceased and he was sent to jail in the matter while he was later bailed out from high court. The deceased was posted as clerk in Faizabad.

The deceased’s wife alleged that her husband was fearing life threat from his senior officials and had left the house on September 30 stating that he would be secretly living at Nautanwa, Behraich at his relative’s place for some time but he never reached there. She thereafter registered an FIR of his abduction.

She said she had also received a letter dated October 7, 2016 posted from Gorakhpur in which he had mentioned the entire details about harassment and involvement of his senior officers in a multicrore scam.

She said the deceased had mentioned that his former chief engineer of Faizabad division, present executive engineer, Uma Shankar Verma and Santosh Kumar are involved in the scam and Singh had requested her to file a petition in high court to expose them.

She said her husband was continuously being harassed by his seniors since 2008 as he always objected to their corrupt activities.

The SO said the postmortem of the deceased’s body would be conducted on Thursday and further probe would be conducted on the basis of its findings.