Police, Congress trade charges over party worker’s death

In a statement, the police said, “According to the post-mortem report, no antemortem injury marks were found on the body of the deceased.” Instead considering Congress office as the crime scene, where the body of the worker was initially reported as per the FIR lodged by the victim’s uncle, the police expressed concern that “prima facie, evidence seems to have been tampered with at the crime scene.”

“The crime scene was inspected by the investigator and the field unit for the collection of scientific evidence in the investigation and the crime scene, which is located inside the Congress state party office, has been protected, and the room concerned has been sealed. Prima facie, it appears that an attempt was made to tamper with the crime scene, the items kept in that room have been changed before the arrival of the investigator and the field unit, investigation is also being done,” said the statement.

Police added that “In the course of investigation, in order to obtain the CCTV footage from the incident spot, which is located in the Congress State Party Office, the relevant DBR has been seized and sent to FSL for analysis,” adding, “The caretaker and other persons present in the party office have been questioned. Statements of the organisers, who called for the demonstration and the participants involved in the demonstration will be recorded.”

Denying the police’s allegations, Ajay Rai said, “We have given police everything, whatever was asked… including CCTV footage. The mattresses that were there were from the tent house, on rent. When our worker went to hospital, those tent house people took them back. In the middle of the night, forensic team came and sealed that entire room. Nothing has been tampered with there and we are fully co-operating with police to get justice for our worker.”

Earlier, giving details of the case, the police said that “In connection with the death of Prabhat Kumar Pandey, son of Deepak Pandey, of Gorakhpur, under suspicious circumstances at the Congress office in Lucknow, the deceased’s uncle, Manish Kumar Pandey, has registered a case of murder under Section 103 BNS at the Hussainganj police station.”

It further informed that “As per the first information, around 4:15 pm, a call came from the Congress office that his nephew was missing for the past two hours and that he he is lying unconscious. As soon as he got the information, he sent his acquaintance Sandeep Mishra to the Congress party office. Sandeep told that Prabhat’s hands and feet had become cold. After this, some people from the Congress office and Sandeep together took Prabhat to the civil hospital, where the doctors declared him dead.”

Police added that “the postmortem of the deceased was conducted by a panel of doctors with videography. The cause of death could not be ascertained in the postmortem report. Therefore, the viscera has been preserved for chemical analysis, and the heart has been preserved for histopathological examination. The body of the deceased has been handed over to the family after all the legal procedures.”