E-Paper
Two cops found dead
TWO POLICE constables were found dead under mysterious circumstances in their rooms on the premises of Central Bank in the busy Chowk area on Monday. Two police personnel ? guard commanderPrabha Shanker Pathak and Ramesh Pandey ? have been arrested in this connection.
TWO POLICE constables were found dead under mysterious circumstances in their rooms on the premises of Central Bank in the busy Chowk area on Monday.
Two police personnel — guard commanderPrabha Shanker Pathak and Ramesh Pandey — have been arrested in this connection.
The matter came to light on Monday morning when the bank employees came to report on their duty. Senior police officials speculated that the murder took place on Saturday night. Both had been attacked with some blunt object. Bodies of slain constables identified as Hansraj Saroj (45) and Chhote Lal attached to Police Lines of Varanasi, have been sent for a post mortem.
Police officials looking after the security of the sensitive Gyanwapi Complex, just 100 metres away from the spot of murder came on their toes and started investigations. The loaded rifles of constables were found safe in their rooms.
A team of four police personnel headed by a guard commander, Prabha Shanker Pathak were deployed in the bank for round the clock security. The bank had also provided two rooms on the first floor of the building for them.
On Saturday, the two victims, Hansraj and Chhote Lal, were inside the bank, while Ramesh Pandey after his duty left the branch at 9 pm. He had come back after an hour but the channel gate was locked from inside and nobody came downstairs to open it so he left the place. On Sunday morning, Ramesh came at 12.00 noon but found that the room was still locked. He shouted a number of times but there was no response from inside.
Surprisingly, the commander told police that he had come to the bank on Sunday morning at 8 am and found both guards inside.
On Monday morning, senior sub-inspector of Chowk police station on getting information from Reserve Inspector of Police Lines broke open the door and found the guards lying in a pool of blood.
SP (City) Anant Deo said, the duo had been arrested following contradictions in statements of both constables and hiding of some facts from the immediate boss (Reserve Inspector in the Police Lines). The arrested guard commander Pathak said he had seen the slain constables alive in the bank on Sunday morning while in fact, the condition of bodies clearly indicated that murder had taken place at least 36 hours before the recovery of bodies, the SP said.
It may be noted that the Chowk police station is situated just 20 metres away from the building of bank. During investigation it came to light that slain constables had quarreled with each other a few days back over some petty issue.
