She filed a sexual assault complaint. Four days later, a body was found 400 km away

Police Thursday arrested the hospital manager, Devkant Uttam (40), his nephew Vivek Patel (30), and a security guard at the hospital, Ajeet Singh (30), in connection with the case, said the Station House Officer of the police station concerned in Kanpur. All three are from Unnao.

According to police, the victim lived with her mother in a rented flat in Kanpur and was preparing for competitive examinations. She came in contact with Uttam when she underwent treatment at the hospital last year and they kept in touch, said police.

She went missing on May 21 after she filed the complaint. Police said the accused had allegedly abducted and murdered her in Kanpur, and her body was later dumped in Bulandshahr to conceal her identity and cover their tracks.

During questioning, police said Uttam claimed the woman was pressuring him to marry her but he refused. He claimed that she filed the complaint against him. So, he allegedly hatched a plan to get rid of her.

How the case was cracked

It was on May 24 that police received information about the missing woman. Her mother filed a kidnapping complaint alleging that Uttam, Vivek and his associates had abducted her daughter and expressed fears that she had been killed.

Around the same time, police also received information that Vivek had filed a complaint in Unnao, claiming that unidentified assailants had shot him in the stomach. A police team kept watch at the hospital where he was undergoing treatment and questioned him once he was discharged.

According to police, Vivek admitted to his role in the woman’s killing. During questioning, he allegedly told police that on May 21, acting on the instructions of Uttam, he called the victim to a location in Kanpur. When she arrived, he asked her to get into a car where Uttam lay in wait and allegedly strangled her to death.

Police said Vivek then drove to the hospital where Uttam got out and Ajeet got in. They drove to Bulandshahr, where the duo dumped the body in a field.

Investigators said Bulandshahr Police found the body on May 23 but were unable to establish the woman’s identity, following which the remains were cremated as per procedure.

On June 2, a Kanpur Police team travelled to Bulandshahr along with the victim’s mother. She identified her based on personal belongings that had been recovered with the remains, including a nose pin and a kalawa, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kanpur, Deependra Nath Chaudhary.

Police, however, said they will carry out a DNA test to confirm the identity.

But who shot Vivek? Police claimed he had inflicted the gunshot wound on himself in an attempt to falsely implicate another person in a separate case.