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Police versions conflicting
THE DISTRICT police appear to have botched up the investigation into the sensational murder case of contractor Neeraj Agarwal. In fact, the manner in which police officials have handled the case amply proved the point. A look into the sequence of events shows that cops have been giving conflicting versions to the media and the family members of the victim. Neeraj was kidnapped on November 11 from the outskirts of the city. A Marshal Jeep overtook his Maruti van and criminals who entered his vehicle drove him away to some unknown destination.
THE DISTRICT police appear to have botched up the investigation into the sensational murder case of contractor Neeraj Agarwal. In fact, the manner in which police officials have handled the case amply proved the point.
A look into the sequence of events shows that cops have been giving conflicting versions to the media and the family members of the victim.
Neeraj was kidnapped on November 11 from the outskirts of the city. A Marshal Jeep overtook his Maruti van and criminals who entered his vehicle drove him away to some unknown destination.
On November 13, the victim’s family got a call from the kidnappers who demanded a hefty sum for his release. They demanded that the money should be brought in a brief case on Prayag Raj Express on November 17, the day Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was in the city. However, nobody came to take the money till Kanpur.
However, the police continued to assure the family members that Neeraj would return safely. Even the Chief Minister told the family members that Neeraj would be back in two days.
But this did not happen. Neeraj was murdered in the jungles of Tarna in Chitrakoot. The shocking news reached the family members on November 19.
The same day DIG Akhilesh Mehrotra told a TV channel at about 10.30 pm that there was an encounter of three of the criminals who were involved in kidnapping Neeraj.
Later, the IG and the SSP told reporters that no such encounter took place. Interestingly, the DIG Kanpur range substantiated the encounter theory. On November 20, Neeraj’s body was cremated. The police accepted the encounter theory and claimed to have arrested four kidnappers.
The arrested miscreants reportedly told the police that Vinneet Agarwal, a business partner of Neeraj, had given them Rs 10 lakh for murdering him.
But the victim’s father and uncles, who are also in the construction business, refused to buy this theory. They said there were no differences between Vineet and Neeraj, as both of them had parted ways from the joint contract business several years ago.
However, Neeraj’s uncle Mahesh Agrawal changed his version today. He said Vineet had started taking interest in road construction work by sidetracking Neeraj’s firm through manipulations. Vineet wanted to have all the tenders in favour of his firm, and this might have prompted him to get Neeraj eliminated.
The arrested kidnappers had told the police that they got Rs 10 lakh from Vineet, but later, they denied having received any cash. The question is: Under these circumstances, was it possible that they eliminated Neeraj even after getting no money? Are the police trying to implicate Vineet Agrawal? Vineet has been remanded to judicial custody following his dramatic arrest from the office of a senior police official.
He was called to the office of the said official from his house on the phone and arrested. He demanded a CBI probe into the case. According to him, he was being implicated in this case.
Cops were making efforts to make it appear that it was a simple case of kidnapping and murder. But it was a case of kidnapping for ransom.
“Cops have found an easy scapegoat in me after knowing that I had been a partner in the construction firm earlier,” Vineet said. He said he had been at home when incident took place and came to know of it through newspapers.
