Tapes give murky turn to Mahoba bizman’s murder

LUCKNOW: The murder of Mahoba businessman Indrakant Tripathi, who succumbed to gunshot wounds on Sunday, turned murkier with the leak of five audio tapes on social media on Tuesday. The police are still verifying the authenticity of the audio recordings.
Mahoba SP Manilal Patidar was suspended for corruption less than 24 hours after Tripathi, who blew the whistle on the IPS officer, was found inside his car with a bullet in his neck. Four taped conversations, purportedly of the slain businessman days before he was shot at, provide an insight into the extortion racket involving politicians, police and district administration over stone mining in Bundelkhand. The first conversation is purportedly between a trader, a local MLA and unidentified persons, while the fifth is between Tripathi’s cousin, Brijesh Shukla, and a criminal, Ashu Bhadauria.
In one of the audios, a voice, purportedly Tripathi’s, is heard telling an unknown person on the phone: “The demands of the SP and DM are the same. Both want Rs 5 lakh each and others Rs 5 lakh.” In the same audio, the unknown caller is heard saying he paid Rs 6 lakh to the SP in June and July but when stone-crushing work was stopped by the administration he could not cough up more. In another audio, a voice, purportedly Tripathi’s, is heard telling a colleague he met SP Mahoba for the first time and that he told him: “I am living under your patronage. Whatever you say will be done.” In the same audio, the unverified voice says he never visited the SP to pay a bribe but was assigned a desolate spot where the amount would be handed over to a henchman.
Arun Srivastava, who took over as Mahoba SP, said the audio tapes are being verified.