Three businessmen were found dead inside a hatchback car pulled out of a pond in Panchpir village under Kamalapur police station limits in Sitapur district late Monday night, police said on Tuesday.
Station house officer (SHO) Atul Choudhary said the bodies had been sent for postmortem examination and all aspects of the incident were being investigated. “The exact cause of death will be known only after the postmortem report comes in,” he said.
The incident came to light when some villagers returning home from duty noticed something floating in the pond. On flashing a torch towards it, they spotted a car and alerted the police.
A police team reached the spot and got the car pulled out. The deceased were identified as Rakesh Chaurasia, 50, and Satish Kumar, 40, residents of Sidhauli, and Ramendra, 62, a resident of Atraulia. Documents recovered from near the bodies helped establish their identities, police said.
According to police, Rakesh Chaurasia’s son Mohan had an accident in Bahraich on Sunday. Rakesh left for Bahraich around 4 am on Monday with his friends Ramendra and Satish to visit his injured son. The car was reportedly captured by a CCTV camera installed at Kanduni factory around 5 am.
The three men spoke to their families on Monday evening while returning, but contact with them was subsequently lost. When they failed to return home by late evening and their phones remained unreachable, their families approached the police and reported them missing.
{{/usCountry}}The three men spoke to their families on Monday evening while returning, but contact with them was subsequently lost. When they failed to return home by late evening and their phones remained unreachable, their families approached the police and reported them missing.
{{/usCountry}}Relatives joined the police in searching for the trio, but their whereabouts remained unknown until the car was recovered late at night.
Police are examining CCTV footage to trace the car’s movements and establish how it entered the pond. Preliminary findings suggest that the three men may have drowned, but investigators said they were still examining the circumstances surrounding the incident.