Kanpur lab technician killed within one week of kidnapping: police

Efforts are also being made to trace the victim's motorcycle and mobile phone which have been missing since he was kidnapped, the SSP said. Circle Officer (Govind Nagar) Vikas Pandey on Friday said the claim of ransom of Rs 30 lakh paid to the abductors was not true but he confirmed that five people, including a woman, were arrested in connection with the case.

Police said a lab technician who was kidnapped last month was killed within a week of being held captive. The man's family claimed that Rs 30 lakh ransom was paid for his release in the presence of police, but Circle Officer Vikas Pandey said the allegation was not true.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Kanpur) Dinesh Kumar Prabhu said on Friday that several key suspects were detained in connection with the case and grilled intensively, during which two of them confessed to the crime. He said the suspects initially tried to mislead the police, but later they disclosed that they kidnapped 27-year-old S Yadav, and killed him either on June 26 or June 27. They further confessed that they disposed of  Yadav's body in Pandu river, the SSP said, adding that the accused had worked together earlier with Yadav in another pathology lab.

Several police teams, including crime branch and surveillance, have been directed to find the victim's body and arrest all those involved in the crime, he said. Efforts are also being made to trace the victim's motorcycle and mobile phone which have been missing since he was kidnapped, the SSP said.

Circle Officer (Govind Nagar) Vikas Pandey on Friday said the claim of ransom of Rs 30 lakh paid to the abductors was not true but he confirmed that five people, including a woman, were arrested in connection with the case. The SSP said that on June 22, Yadav, a resident of Barra area, was kidnapped and his family filed a missing complaint with Barra police station the next day.

Just three days later, the charges were changed into kidnapping charges. The victim's family alleged that the kidnappers had called on the mobile phone of his father, Chaman Singh Yadav, and demanded Rs 30 lakh ransom for his release.

The family appeared before the media earlier this month and claimed that they had thrown a bag containing Rs 30 lakh on railway tracks from a flyover in police's presence and did whatever they were told to do by the kidnappers, but they did not free Yadav. Soon after, the SSP had said, "I am taking cognisance of a media report in which payment of ransom of Rs 30 lakh has come to the fore. I am talking to the aggrieved family. If anyone is wrong, they will be punished. " He had also assured the family about the safe return of the victim and said that if any ransom was paid it would be recovered.

Opposition parties, including Congress and Samajwadi Party, had reacted sharply soon after the family came before the media and claimed that ransom was given to the kidnappers in the presence of the police. The parties claimed this incident was depictive of the dismal law and order in the state. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had flayed the Yogi Adityanath government over the alleged deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had asked who was giving patronage to criminals who did not fear the police and fled with the ransom money. "It seems morality of the BJP government has also been kidnapped," he had said in a tweet in Hindi.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)