'Pressure' to pursue NEET: Inside blue drum murder of father by son in Lucknow

The crime unfolded in the accused's three-storey family home in Lucknow's upscale Ashiana area.

A 21-year-old man in Lucknow allegedly killed his father, dismembered his body and stuffed it in a blue drum on Friday, February 20, reportedly following an argument over the father asking his son to pursue medical entrance exam NEET, said police.

Akshat killed his father in front of his sister, a class 11 student, and even allegedly threatened to kill her if she spoke about what had happened. (Ritesh Yadav/HH)

The accused, identified as Akshat is a B.com student and disagreed with his father's will for him to pursue NEET and the gruesome crime stemmed from an argument over the same, said Vikrant Vir, deputy commissioner of police, Central in Lucknow, Hindustan Times reported earlier.

Inspired by Meerut ‘blue drum’ murder

According to police, the gruesome murder in Lucknow was inspired by the ‘blue drum’ murder case in Meerut which happened in March 2025. In the Meerut murder case, Muskan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla killed the woman's husband Saurabh Rajput, who was a 29-year-old Merchant Navy officer, and chopped his body into 15 pieces before stuffing in a large blue drum. Th drum was then sealed with cement to mask the odour and delay discover of the crime and the body.

Akshat killed his father in front of his sister, a class 11 student, and even allegedly threatened to kill her if she spoke about what had happened. “The sister witnessed the entire episode but was intimidated into silence,” the DCP said.

The police said that murder took place on the morning of February 20 at around 4.30am where the forensic teams are looking for evidence now.

How the accused tried to mislead police

The accused's father, who owned a pathology lab and was also involved in liquor trade, was last seen alive on the morning of February 20, the day of crime. In a bid to mislead police, Akshat told them that his father had woken him up at 6 am and told him that he was leaving for Delhi and would be back by afternoon. However, the family grew anxious after all three of Manvendra's phone numbers were switched off.

Later, the accused dragged his father's body from the third floor to the ground into an empty room where he dismembered it, said Kshatrapal, the Ashiana SHO.

"He loaded some parts into his car and drove to Sadrauna, a remote area, where he dumped them,” the SHO said.

The DCP added that they found Manvendra's head and torso stuffed into a blue drum in the same room, which the accused had planned of disposing later. "He was in the process of getting rid of the torso when we intervened,” the DCP said.

Even after being caught by the police, the accused continued to lie and claimed that his father died by suicide before eventually accepting that he murdered him. The accused was arrested on Monday.

“Strict interrogation led to his confession,” the DCP said.

(With inputs from Aakash Ghosh)