2006 murder case of elderly couple: ‘Circumstantial evidence’: CBI nabs two

The couple — Lallu Prasad Dixit (65) and Savitri Devi (61) — were found murdered in their house at Salempur village in Kanpur on July 31, 2006. While Lallu Prasad was strangled to death, his wife was hit with a blunt object on her head, causing her death. “We arrested Surender Shukla (34) and his cousin Mahender Shukla (35) after they kept changing their statements and could not give specific reasons behind their presence near Dixit’s house when the murders took place. We have evidence corroborating that both had visited couple’s house a few hours before their bodies were found,” said a CBI official.

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“We sought custodial interrogation of the two to question them about the motive behind the murder, as their arrest has been made on the basis of circumstantial evidence. The PCR will start from Saturday morning,” he added.

While Mahender belongs to Tajpura village, Surender is a resident of neighbouring Beedi Rawal village, both in Unnao district. They both are in dairy business. Surender’s in-laws live near the couple’s residence.

During investigation, the CBI found that Surender had come to visit his in-laws on July 30 evening in 2006. Mahender too arrived a few hours later. Both later went to Lallu Prasad’s house. The next morning, the couple was found dead. When police arrived, Surender had left his in-laws’ house. The agency also found that Surender had called up the owner of a PCO near Lallu Prasad’s house and asked him if police was inquiring about him. As the PCO owner replied in the negative, Surender reached his in-laws’ house.

Following the incident, Lallu Prasad’s relative, Kamal Kumar Pandey, lodged a murder complaint at Maharajpur police station. Later, police added IPC Section 460 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night punishable where death or grievous hurt) in the FIR when Lallu Prasad’s daughter, Asha Devi, alleged that cash, jewellery and a licensed rifle was also missing.

As police failed to trace the accused, the state government, on the family’s request, transferred the probe to the CB-CID. However, the state agency too failed to collect any evidence and filed a closure report in 2008.

Following this, Asha moved the district court, suspecting that someone known to her family was behind the murder. However, the court rejected her petition. She then moved to the Allahabad High Court, seeking a CBI inquiry. That petition too was rejected, said a CBI official.

Asha later filed a Special Leave Petition before the SC and CBI was ordered to investigate the case in October 2013.