Another blunder by UP cops

Darpan Singh, Mathura

With the Uttar Pradesh police still getting flak for poor handling of the Arushi murder case at Noida and the CBI blasting the cops, earlier probing the case, for faulty examination of the crime scene, here comes another shocker — this time courtesy Mathura cops.

In the wee hours of Saturday, Tripti Khandelwal (28), wife of trader Ravi Khandelwal, was found murdered inside her residence (C-12) in the posh Radhapuram locality under the Highway police station of Mathura. The body was recovered from a divan. Incidentally, when the recovery was made, cops were busy conducting raids outside on being informed that Tripti was missing with her house locked from outside.

The matter came to light when Ravi returned from his shop and found his housed locked. On breaking open two locks, he found his son Kanak (4) in a state of shock, with his limbs tied with a stole. Kanak said someone came down from the roof, tied and thrashed him after which he fell unconscious. Police soon reached the spot and ‘after examining the crime scene’ left the house around midnight. A case of kidnapping was lodge, while the body was lying in the house.

Police sources said that at around 2.30 am, when Ravi, while trying to take out a mattress from a divan kept adjacent to his bedroom, found his wife strangulated to death inside. It also appeared that her face had been attacked with a sharp-edged weapon to ensure her death after being put in the divan. Earlier in the day, the cops sat on the same divan in which the body had been kept a good 5-6 hours ago. An embarrassed police team again rushed to spot and sent the body for autopsy in a huff.

When contacted by HT on Sunday, Mathura SSP SB Shiradkar, who also visited the house on Saturday, denied that the crime scene was not properly examined. He said, “When a case of kidnapping is lodged, police do not search boxes. Even the kid said that her mother had gone outside.” When asked about the motive behind the murder and the suspect, the SSP said, “It’s too early to say anything. We are probing the matter in the right direction. The killer(s) would soon be nabbed.” He said that prima facie, the case did not appear to be that of loot. When asked, why the police failed to search the house even after finding the kid with his limbs tied, he failed to give any satisfactory reply.

Meanwhile, family members of the victim have accused Ravi of killing his wife. They said the two got married five years ago and during the past couple of years, they had had frequent fights. Mathura police spokesperson Rajesh Chaturvedi said a fresh case of murder had been lodged with the Highway police station and charges against Ravi were also being probed. Police officials associated with the probe told HT at Mathura on Sunday, “The killer(s) was known to the family as he had the key and locked the house from outside after committing the crime.”