Missing for eight days, murdered UP lawyer’s body found dumped in marble godown

MEERUT: The massive manhunt to trace Bulandhshar lawyer Dharmendra Chaudhary who had been missing for the past eight days ended with the recovery his body from a marble godown in Khurja area of Uttar Pradesh on Friday night.
Police suspected a money dispute behind the murder — which kept policemen on their toes for over a week — and arrested Vicky, the godown owner and a close associate of Chaudhary, and two of his domestic helps — Hakimuddin and Amit.

An additional police force and companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were deployed in the area after the body was found.

Chaudhary, in his late 40s, had mysteriously disappeared on July 25 after he left home in Bulandshahr’s Khurja locality to join Vicky, who had hosted a dinner for him at the godown. The family began a frantic search for Chaudhary and alerted police after he did not return home till late in the night and his mobile was found to be switched off.

On July 26, Chaudhary’s motorcycle was found abandoned at a desolate spot, nearly 6 km from his last known location based on the cell tower record. This first breakthrough was an early sign of a foul play as police began a massive manhunt with several teams, dog squads and drones pressed into action.
Police kept combing the forest area around the spot where Chaudhary’s motorcycle was recovered without a lead on his whereabouts.
As per his call details, Chaudhary’s last known location was around his friend Vicky’s godown. Police took Vicky on the radar, but for the want of evidence, they were treading carefully and were unwilling to ruffle feathers by rounding up a close friend of the missing lawyer without any concrete evidence at hand.
“The family found Chaudhary’s ledger and it was learnt that he had lent at least Rs 50 lakh to Vicky. There was no technical evidence to nail Vicky for the disappearance of the lawyer, and hence, we asked him to undergo a lie-detector test,” said Bulandshahr senior superintendent of police Santosh Kumar.
Vicky, who was part of the police team searching for the missing lawyer, has been “misleading police since the beginning”. Police had “to some extent suspicion” on him till July 31 when he refused to undergo a lie-detector test at a Delhi lab citing health issues. “He (Vicky) initially agreed to undertake the lie-detector test, but refused at the last moment, citing health concerns. This emboldened our suspicion on him. On Friday night, we conducted a thorough search of the godown where the deceased was invited for the dinner,” said the SSP.
After a search that lasted for three hours, police found Chaudhary’s body in a concrete pit inside the godown. The pit was covered with tiles to dodge police of all evidence, but the pungent smell of the decomposed body showed the away, said police.
Opposition parties, which have been attacking the UP government over the deteriorating law and order, linked the incident to a spate of kidnapping and murders in the state.
Taking a potshot at the Yogi Adityanath government, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “Shri Dharmendra Chaudhary was abducted 8 days ago in Bulandshahr. His body was found yesterday. Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Bulandshahr, in every incident there is lethargy of law and order and signs of “jungle raj”. Do not know how long the government will sleep?”
Refuting the allegations of abduction, Bulandshahr police claimed it to be a “murder of trust”. “Dharmendra Chaudhary was murdered by his close friend to gulp Rs 70 lakh lent by the deceased. He was murdered and his body was hidden. This is not abduction but “murder of trust”,” Bulandshahr police said in a tweet.