The CBI investigation of the disappearance of Aadesh Bajpai,a Mumbai-based fashion designer,in Kanpur four years ago has received a fresh turn with a Hyderabad lab confirming that the acid-washed bones,recovered from the IIT-K campus a few days after his disappearance,were his. The agency now plans to question Rahul Verma,a former IIT-K student,with whom Bajpai was last seen. The agency has approached the Allahabad High Court,from where Verma had obtained a stay on his arrest. Though it had questioned Verma in the past,it said he needs to be "questioned intensively,if necessary in custody''. The CBI is not sure of Verma's whereabouts but police sources said he is studying at IIM-L. "We have moved the court,after receiving fresh evidence in the case,including the forensic report,which established that the bones are Bajpai's. For matching the DNA,the blood samples of his father Surya Kumar Bajpai and mother Savitri Bajpai were taken," a CBI official said,adding that Verma is now the prime suspect in the case. Bajpai and Verma were Net friends and the CBI has sought the help of a networking website in Holland for details of their chats. "We are facing a problem because neither Verma nor Bajpai had a computer and they communicated on cyber cafe computers," the official said. Bajpai's father,a retired government employee,had moved the court for a CBI investigation when the police hit a dead-end. A resident of Mumbai's Meera Road,Bajpai had come to Lucknow on August 3,2008 on a business trip. After completing his assignment,he went to Kanpur on August 10 to meet his cousin Vivek Trivedi. Trivedi had told police that after meeting him,Bajpai said he wanted to meet his friend at IIT-K. "He told me that his friend was waiting for him and requested me to drop him at the Moolganj crossing. When we reached there,Verma was waiting for him. We shook hands and he told me his name,but I forgot it soon after," he said. When Bajpai did not return the next day,Trivedi and his relatives began to search for him. On August 16,Bajpai's father Suryakant came to Kanpur and lodged a complaint with the Moolganj police,stating that his son had gone missing. From Bajpai's cellphone records,the police found that he had visited IIT-K on August 10. The case was converted into one of kidnapping. Soon,Verma moved court and obtained a stay on his arrest.
