Breakthrough: One accused arrested

Lucknow DIG N K Srivastava said,“Ravindar Gaur is a friend of prime accused Ravi Gupta,who is absconding. He lived in a rented house in Jia Mau and had been missing since the murder took place.”

Police said during interrogation Ravindar confessed to his involvement in the crime and admitted that he had committed it along with his friend Ravi Gupta,also a native of Domariaganj. Vikas Nagar police station in-charge Jagannath Saroj said Ravindar told police that the murder was the fallout of a dispute between Ravi and Rakesh. “Rakesh had developed relations with Ravi’s cousin,and Ravi had asked him to stay away from her. But Rakesh did not mend his ways. Ravi then decided to kill him,” he quoted Ravinder as saying.

On February 19,Ravi,Ravinder and Rakesh came to Khurshed Bagh flat to drink liquor. As planned,Rakesh was encouraged to drink so much that he lost control of himself. Then Ravi and Ravindar killed him,cut his body into pieces,packed it into a polythene bag and put it into a box. They waited for a suitable opportunity to dispose it off.

But before they could do this,the police,acting on the missing complaint lodged by Rakesh’s father visited the flat and found the body.

Initially,the police believed that the murder could be linked to smuggling activity in which all three youths and their friends were involved,but the investigation reached a dead-end.

Saroj said after police got information that Ravi’s friend Ravinder was also missing since the murder,they became suspicious and started monitoring his activities. “We found something fishy in his profile and we laid a trap,” said police.