Engineer picked up for colleague’s murder

Gorakhpur DIG Anand Swaroop said the police picked up the victim’s colleague A K Chaudhary after the deceased’s family said they suspected him. A dispute over contracts and departmental rivalry could be possible reasons behind the crime,he added. Cantonment Circle Officer Vishwajeet Srivastava,who is investigating the case,said,“Manoj Kumar Singh had recently replaced Chaudhary to look after a project worth Rs 7 crore at Khadda area in Kushinagar. Singh had a tiff with Chaudhary as the latter was reluctant to hand over the charge.”

The CO also said that the family members of the deceased had not told the police if the engineer had received a threat from anybody. The police investigation has so far revealed that a few contractors were visiting Singh regularly,asking for contracts in the project. President of the Uttar Pradesh Engineers’ Association A A Farooqui has demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh and security cover for the family of the deceased engineer. Farooqui said the police had no evidence against Chaudhary,besides the fact that he had a tiff with Singh.

Auriya murder:
Hostile witness makes another turn
A witness in the PWD engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta murder case,who had turned hostile on Saturday,admitted during his cross-examination on Monday that he had taken BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari and other accused to the engineer’s house on the night of December 23 last year.

Jaiveer Singh told the court that he was on night duty at the gate of Gail Vihar Colony when Tiwari and others arrived and asked him to show Gupta’s house. Jaiveer’s cross-examination was completed on Monday,said I B Singh,special counsel of the state government. The prosecution requested the court to punish Jaiveer for making a false statement before the court. The next date of hearing has been fixed on August 17.

Earlier,on Saturday,Jaiveer had told the court that his statement before the police had been made under pressure,as they had detained him illegally at the Auraiya police station between December 26,2008 and January 1,2009.