Kanpur kidnap & murder: Lab technician strangled in captivity, body dumped in river

Kanpur: Twenty days after the Bikru ambush in which 8 cops were killed, Kanpur police suffered another setback when two arrested kidnappers of a 28-year-old laboratory technician, Sanjeet Yadav, squealed before interrogators that they had killed and dumped the captive’s body in Pandu river within a week of taking him hostage. The high-voltage kidnapping drama had grabbed eyeballs amidst the Vikas Dubey episode after a viral video on July 14 showed wailing family members allege that police failed to nab the kidnappers from fleeing with Rs 30 lakh ransom dropped from an overbridge in Kanpur. Five people, including a woman and two friends of Yadav were arrested late Thursday, police said.
In a damage-control exercise, the state government on Friday swiftly suspended 11 police personnel, including two senior officers for laxity. Additional director general of police B P Jogdand was directed to probe whether any ransom money exchanged hands even as divers scoured the Pandu river for the technician’s body. The big heads to roll included SP South, Aparna Gupta, deputy superintendent of police, Manoj Kumar Gupta, SHO, Barra, Ranjit Rai and beat in charge Rajesh Kumar.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, Dinesh Kumar Prabhu, told reporters that a probe confirmed Yadav was murdered by his abductors and two arrested suspects confessed to the crime. “Two of the accused, who were earlier Yadav’s colleagues at a pathology lab, tried to mislead police, but later admitted killing Yadav either on June 26 or June 27,” he said. However, there was a fresh twist to the kidnapping saga after a video emerged on Friday in which Yadav’s father could be heard confessing to investigators he had stashed fake currency notes in the ransom bag. Efforts are on to trace Yadav’s bike and mobile phone, which have been missing since he was kidnapped, the SSP said.
Yadav went missing on June 22, and a complaint was lodged by family members at Barra police station on the next day. The missing diary was converted into kidnapping case on June 26. On June 29, the family received the first ransom call. Several teams, including personnel from crime branch and surveillance cell were formed for a breakthrough.
On July 14, police were jolted into action after a viral video showed Yadav’s sister, Ruchi, alleging that cops failed to nab the captors despite payment of Rs 30lakh ransom. The next day, another video of Ruchi emerged, wherein she was heard saying no ransom was paid to kidnappers and she gave the statement to create pressure on police. Another video in quick succession showed Ruchi accusing a crime branch official of coercing her to admit that no ransom was paid even though money exchanged hands at police’s behest.
On Thursday, five suspects, Gyanendra, Kuldeep, Neelu, Ramji and Preeti were taken into custody by Kanpur police and two among them, Kuldeep and Ramji, who were Sanjeet's friends, confessed to killing Yadav. They said they had taken a room on rent at Ratan Lal Nagar to keep the lab technician captive. When he tried to escape, they strangled him and tossed his body in the Pandu river,” the SSP said.
SSP Dinesh Kumar Prabhu said, a bag stashed with cash was tossed from an overbridge near Barra bypass by Yadav’s family, but kidnap kingpin Gyanendra denied receiving the money. Talking to TOI, IG Mohit Agarwal, however, said, “The family has been claiming ransom was paid to kidnappers, but no money exchanged hands. We are probing the case from all angles.”
A pall of gloom enveloped Yadav’s house and police inaction left many shocked. Family and relatives created a ruckus soon after they received the news of death. They had to be pacified by senior police officials. “We had received more than 15 ransom calls,” said Yadav’s sister. They also questioned the lax role of police in saving Yadav.