2.5-month search yields no trace of body

LUCKNOW: Police are yet to trace the body and make any headway in the death of Bharat Kumar, 32, a delivery executive, almost three months after the incident.

- Aakash Ghosh

Kumar was allegedly stabbed to death and had his body thrown into a canal by men in greed for premium phones.

After the matter came to light in September, the names of three people surfaced in the case, in which police gave a clean chit to one, and the other two accused remain in jail.

The incident happened on September 23, and police began searching for the body from October 1 onwards after one of the accused, according to the police, confessed to the crime and said they threw the body into the Indira Canal close to Lucknow Barabanki border. Almost 2.5 months since the body was dumped, Lucknow police are yet to trace the body. This is despite Lucknow police being a commissionerate with the provision of advanced technical surveillance and manpower.

"The body could not be found despite a lot of effort. The search will be on till it is recovered," said Bharat Pathak, station-in-charge, Chinhat.

Manoj Kumar, a SI posted at the police station and investigation officer (IO) in the case said, "The SDRF team tried to search for the body continuously for 15 days, but were unable to find it. The search was done till Rae Bareli but in vain. The body was searched even when the canal's water dried up but there was no trace of the body," he said.

The brother of the deceased, Prem Kumar said, "I too was involved with the rescue team to try and help trace my brother's body. But we did not get anything to cremate."

Police have also failed to recover the murder weapon, which was a laptop wire in the case.