UP: Bodies of school owner, principal found cremated inside school premises; four held for murder

AGRA: In a sensational dual murder, bodies of the 50-year-old school owner and the 45-year-old principal were found cremated inside the premises of a school in Kaulakha area of Tajganj police jurisdiction in UP’s Agra.
Surender Lavania, resident of Om Vihar, Sikandra police jurisdiction, the victim owned two schools (Sainik Bharti Inter College and Dr BR Ambedkar School) in city limits, while the other victim, Vijay Kumar Jha, resident of Indrapuram, Sadar police jurisdiction, was the principal of Sainik Bharti Inter College.
The two were missing since Friday morning with their phone switched off after they left home at around 10am for school. Later, on Sunday morning police recovered the duo’s bodies from Dr BR Ambedkar school premises and sent them for autopsy.
According to police, four men identified as Dheeraj, his two brothers Sandeep and Neeraj, along with friend Vijay Singh have been charged for the murder of two victims. Hailing from Sameri village, all four men were booked under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender).
Speaking to TOI, Anuj Kumar, station house officer of Tajganj, said, “Dheeraj was running Lavania’s Dr BR Ambedkar School on rent for the last several years. For the last two years, he owed around Rs 63,000 as rent to Lavania. On Friday morning, Vijay Kumar Jha went to Ambedkar School to take pending rent from Dheeraj, but the two engaged in a heated argument after which Dheeraj, along with Sandeep and Vijay Singh, allegedly strangulated Vijay to death.”
“As the trio were making arrangements to dispose of Vijay’s body, curious Surender Lavania visited Dheeraj at Ambedkar school and asked for Vijay’s whereabouts, as his motorbike was parked inside school premises. Dheeraj lied to Lavania and claimed that Vijay left a moment ago. Unsatisfied with Dheeraj’s reply, when Lavania called on Vijay’s number, his phone rang which was found in Dheeraj’s pocket. Later, Lavania spotted Vijay’s body which was kept hidden behind the curtain of Dheeraj’s office. By the time he could alert anyone about the murder, Dheeraj and his brother Sandeep and friend Vijay Singh strangulated Surender Lavania to death, and cremated the two corpses inside school premises,” said officer Kumar.
According to police, after cremating the two bodies, Dheeraj went home along with two accused and took the help of his third brother Neeraj to dispose of Surender Lavania’s sedan and Vijay Kumar Jha’s motorbike and their mobile phones and other belongings.
Before being taken to jail by police, when Dheeraj was asked why he and his aide murdered the two victims, he said, "Vijay Kumar Jha used derogatory comment about my mother and sister when I failed to repay the rent. So I killed him in out of rage. Surender Lavania was murdered, because he saw Vijay's body in my office."
Senior superintendent of police, Agra, Jogendra Kumar said, “The dual murder case was solved within 12 hours of first information received to local police. The team has been rewarded with Rs 25,000 cash.”
Picture credit: Hemant Kumar