Three years on, Ghaziabad police establish identity of murdered man
The police said after a prolonged and thorough investigation, they established the identity of the deceased man as Bablu Kumar, 35, a native of Lakhimpur
The Ghaziabad police has established the identity of a 35-year-old daily wager, who was murdered more than three years ago, and said the prime suspect, a labour contractor, had forged his ID papers to present him as his brother and extort ₹5 lakh from the builder by portraying the victim’s on-site death as accidental.
The police said after a prolonged and thorough investigation, they established the identity of the deceased man as Bablu Kumar, 35, a native of Lakhimpur.
Police said the Kumar was murdered at a under construction site in Vijay Nagar in February 2020.
The police identified the prime suspect as Kannu Lal, 45, a native of Lakhimpur Kheri, and his accomplice as Om Prakash, 43 and said the two had hatched a conspiracy on February 23, 2020, to extort money from the builder and for that they allegedly murdered Bablu Kumar on the 25th floor of the under construction building and then defaced his face. Later, they told police that Bablu Kumar had died after falling from the building.
“Kannu Lal prepared some fake IDs and presented Bablu Kumar as his brother Sarvesh Kumar to the builder and got him employed at the site. Under a planned conspiracy, they murdered the victim and showed his death as accidental to demand a compensation of ₹5 lakh from the builder. During investigation, police found a pool of blood on the upper terrace of the site and that hinted that the victim was murdered and did not die from a fall,” said Sujit Kumar Rai, assistant commissioner of police (city 1).
The police later booked the two suspects for murder, destruction of evidence with common intention and a court sent them to judicial custody. While Om Prakash later obtained bail, Kannu Lal is still lodged at Dasna jail in Ghaziabad.
Police said they and the workers at the site got the body cremated in the belief that it was Kannu Lal’s brother, Sarvesh.
The case took a twist when Kannu Lal in April 2022 submitted an application before the court saying he could not be tried for murder as his brother Sarvesh was very much alive.
“On the directions of the court, we reached out to his family in Lakhimpur and got DNA tests of Sarvesh, Kannu Lal and their mother dome. The tests affirmed them to be sons of the same parents. That left us with the question of \who was murdered?” said ACP Rai.
“In this connection, we registered another case at Vijay Nagar last week of cheating and forgery and nabbed Om Prakash. He got us a mobile phone which was used by both the deceased and Kannu Lal. The electronic records got us the mother-in-law of the deceased man and the phone also contained one of his photographs,” Rai said.
Police said the dead man was identified as Bablu Kumar by his family and they told police that he came to Ghaziabad to work as a daily wager to sustain his family and save money to get his daughter wedded.
The police said now that the identity of the deceased has been established, they have a strong case against Kannu Lal and Om Prakash.
“Kannu Lal has a history sheet in his name at Lakhimpur and is named in five heinous case of crime including that of murder. We suspect that he may have murdered some other persons as well in order to extract money in a similar manner. Om Prakash has been arrested and he along with Kannu Lal will continue to face charges of murder and destruction of evidence,” ACP Rai said.