Former village chief’s body found charred

A 75-year-old former chief of a Greater Noida village was found dead after he went missing on June 2. The deceased was identified as Chandi Pradhan and police said

A 75-year-old former chief of a Greater Noida village was found dead after he went missing on June 2. The deceased was identified as Chandi Pradhan and police said he had left home to see a doctor in Kasna and never returned.

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Police found his charred body two days later, but took more than a week to identify it. Pradhan’s family alleged that police made no sufficient efforts and cremated the body as unidentified.

Pradhan, who hailed from Kheri Bhanota, had left home on the afternoon of June 2. His son Kapil said when his father did not return, he informed the Surajpur police next day and filed a missing person complaint. “We later came to know through news reports that a charred body was recovered on June 4, about a kilometre from the Sirsa roundabout,” he said.

Kapil said he immediately rushed to the police station and made enquiries. “The police told me that an autopsy had revealed that the victim was strangled and later the body set on fire. The police had found some property documents from the spot which belongs to my father. The police should have made efforts to reach out to us,” he said.

Harish Chander, deputy commissioner of police, Noida Central, said the documents recovered from the spot had no details that could have identified the man. The police have registered a case against unknown persons under Section 302 (murder) and Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence).

“We have detained a few suspects for interrogation. Primary investigation shows the man was killed over a monetary dispute. We will soon solve the case and arrest the people involved in the murder,” he said.