IIT Alumnus Gets Life Sentence for 2008 Murder of Fashion Designer

A special CBI court in Lucknow sentenced Rahul Verma, an IIT alumnus, to life imprisonment for the 2008 murder of Mumbai-based fashion designer Adesh Bajpai. Verma was proven guilty through forensic tests and circumstantial evidence after Bajpai's remains were found on the IIT-Kanpur campus.

A special CBI court in Lucknow on Wednesday sentenced an IIT alumnus to life imprisonment in the murder of Mumbai-based fashion designer Adesh Bajpai in 2008.

The probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) showed that Bajpai had come to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on August 10, 2008, to meet his friend Rahul Verma, the accused in the case. Bajpai had come to Lucknow from Mumbai on August 4 and had then gone to Kanpur on August 10 from where he was reported missing, according to the probe.

''The deceased Adesh Bajpai and the accused Rahul Verma were members of a group. Adesh Bajpai went with accused Rahul Verma on the night of August 10, 2008, from Moolganj Chauraha, Kanpur,'' the CBI spokesperson said on Wednesday. The agency had taken over two cases -- one related to a gunny bag with human remains found in the IIT-Kanpur compound on the basis of a report by a security guard and the second related to a missing persons report filed by Bajpai's father.

The Chandigarh-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) conducted a skull superimposition test, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, the mitochondrial DNA analysis of bones recovered from the IIT-Kanpur's premises and the CFSL-Delhi conducted the forensic psychological assessment of Verma, according to the CBI. The DNA reports conclusively proved that human remains found in IIT-Kanpur belonged to Bajpai. The forensic tests, expert opinions and circumstantial evidences nailed the role of Verma in Bajpai's murder. Verma was taken into custody on January 24, 2012. ''After investigation in both cases, the CBI filed a common charge-sheet on 20.04.2012 against accused Rahul Verma, a resident of Lucknow, in the Court of Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI Cases, Lucknow,'' the spokesperson said. During trial, the CBI presented cogent evidences, examined 44 witnesses and exhibited 66 documents and 16 material objects which led to conviction of the accused, he said.

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