E-Paper
Retd IAS officer?s death buried in mystery
RETIRED IAS officer Ramesh Chandra Rastogi, 77, was found murdered in mysterious circumstances at his Indira Nagar residence on Saturday noon. The assailant/s had buried Rastogi?s body in the backyard. It was exhumed by the cops.
RETIRED IAS officer Ramesh Chandra Rastogi, 77, was found murdered in mysterious circumstances at his Indira Nagar residence on Saturday noon. The assailant/s had buried Rastogi’s body in the backyard. It was exhumed by the cops.
The motive for the killing was yet to be established as all belongings in the house were found intact. Rastogi was last seen after he returned from his friend AC Seth’s Gomti Nagar residence around 10.30 pm on Friday. Seth is a retired IAS officer also.
Cops have detained the servant of the deceased to collect details about the acquaintances and others frequently visiting the victim. Rastogi used to stay alone since his son is settled in France and daughter married and living in Dehradun. His brother Suresh Chandra, a businessman, lives with his family in their parental house in Asharfabad, Chowk.
The incident came to light around 1 pm when Rastogi’s neighbour Harendra Mohan Srivastava informed the police. Cops rushed to the Rastogi’s residence at C-29, Indira Nagar to find the lock on one of the front doors and another lying opened.
Police found bloodstains in the drawing room but did not find Rastogi.
All belongings were seen intact and there was no clue. His Maruti car too was found parked outside.
Surprisingly, the cops went to the backyard of the house after staying there for three hours.
They later saw that a particular portion on the backyard was dug up and fresh soil lying was around. Constables were asked to dig the place. On digging, they saw Rastogi’s body buried in the pit.
On exhuming the body, it was found that merely one gash caused by a heavy object on right side of the head was evident on victim’s body. Prima facie, the injury was stated to have caused the death.
Rastogi’s neighbour informed the police that it was around 8.30 am when the victim’s servant Shyamlal came to him. He told Srivastava that he knocked the door several times and call out too but Rastogi did not respond.
Srivastava too went to the house and did the same but there was no response.
Srivastava returned home and informed another neighbour about the suspicious circumstances. They all later decided to inform the police. The cops called up the victim’s brother Suresh Chandra and picked up his servant Shyamlal to collect the details about the Rastogi.
CO Gomti Nagar RN Singh said they were probing into the matter and were collecting clues for a possible motive. Rastogi was a 1963 batch PCS officer and retired as Joint Secretary, Labour Department in 1987 after being promoted to IAS cadre.
