UP records 49.3% polling in by-elections; exit polls predict BJP to win maximum seats
An estimated 49.3% of the 34.35 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the by-elections for the nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
The body of a a fourth-year law student at IME Ghaziabad, was found buried in the basement of his former landlord in Girdhar Enclave in Sahibabad area, police said on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old victim Pankaj Singh had been missing since October 9, Superintendent of Police Maneesh Mishra said.
“We started investigating the area where he was last spotted. We found that his previous landlord and his family had left home the day after the complaint was filed, which seemed suspicious. We scanned the house and found fresh plaster in the basement. We dug it up and Singh’s body was inside,” Indian Express quoted as saying Maneesh Mishra, SP City Ghaziabad.
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His former landlord Hariom alias Munna, along with his family is on the run since Saturday, he added.
SP city further said that hunt is on to nab them.
Singh had moved to another rented accommodation in Girdhar Enclave earlier this month. He was also running a cyber cafe and making sizeable profit, which apparently nurtured greed in the accused, Hariom, who lived in the same locality, police said.
According to police Singh also used to give tuition to students, including accused’s four children.
When Singh went missing his younger brother Maneesh lodged a report at Sahibabad police station.
During investigation it surfaced that the Hariom and his wife were pressurizing Singh to sell his cyber cafe to them at a very low price, the police said.
The police reached Hariom’s house on Monday and found that the basement”s floor was renovated, they said.
Later, Singh’s body was exhumed in the presence of a magistrate, the police said.
According to the post-mortem report, Pankaj Singh was strangled to death. Indian Express report says, “he was allegedly choked with a rope and then buried, about three-four days before his body was found by police on Monday. Police said they have also recovered the rope allegedly used in the crime from the house of the landlord, Munna, the prime accused who is yet to be arrested.”
(With inputs from PTI)
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