Manchanda case: Gurugram cops face action over handling of his body

The body was recovered on September 10 but details were uploaded on ZIPNET only on September 16, the day Manchanda’s family approached police.

Gurugram Police has ordered departmental proceedings against a sub-inspector and the station house officer (SHO) of Badshahpur police station after an internal inquiry found prima facie lapses in the handling of the unidentified body of Delhi-based realty professional Yuvraj Singh Manchanda, senior police officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.

Officials said the lapses included a delay in uploading details of the unidentified body and failure to relay information about its recovery to police control rooms in neighbouring districts and Delhi, which delayed its identification. The body was subsequently cremated as unclaimed, denying Manchanda’s family the opportunity to perform his last rites.

Departmental proceedings have been ordered against the sub-inspector and inspector Rajesh Bagri, SHO of Badshahpur police station, officials who asked not to be identified said.

A senior Gurugram Police officer said the sub-inspector posted at the police control room had alerted police stations across Gurugram about the recovery of the body, but the information was not circulated to police control rooms in neighbouring Haryana districts or Delhi.

“However, it came to light after an internal inquiry that the same message was not circulated to police control rooms of neighbouring districts of Gurugram and to Delhi Police, which was a serious lapse in the set protocol as per the standard operating procedure,” he said.

The development came a day after Haryana director general of police Ajay Singhal acknowledged lapses in the handling of the unidentified body.

On September 22, the Supreme Court sought responses from Haryana and Delhi police authorities over the matter and asked: “We want to know from Haryana why the information of the missing person was not put out on the portal.”

Meanwhile, police officials aware of the matter said the Badshahpur team was trying to retrieve CCTV footage of the cremation, which may be required before a Delhi court and could be shown to Manchanda’s family.

Manchanda, a resident of Sarita Vihar, left Lajpat Nagar market for Gurugram on the evening of September 6 after asking his two sisters to return home in a cab. His family filed a missing-person complaint on September 11. By September 16, Delhi Police had detained Manchanda’s former colleague Anya Vats and her partner Saiyam Sachdeva from Uttarakhand who confessed to murdering him.