Unnao hospital owner, nephew held for abducting, murdering woman who filed harassment complaint

ACommon soldier infirmary possessor and his nephew from Unnao feature been arrested in connectedness with the abduction and murder of a 21-year-old woman, who had gone missing two days after lodging a sexual harassment complaint against the hospital owner, police said on Wednesday, adding the accused dumped her body nearly 450km away in Bulandshahr to conceal the crime.The accused have been identified as Devkant Uttam, owner of Uttam Hospital in Unnao, and his nephew Vivek Patel, an ambulance driver, police said.According to the police, the deceased, a BA final-year student from Unnao who had also enrolled in a police sub-inspector coaching institute in Kanpur, lodged a harassment complaint against Uttam at Kotwali police station in Unnao on May 19, two days before her disappearance. A senior officer said she came in contact with Uttam while undergoing treatment at his hospital.Also Read | Ahead of June 5 deadline, documents of 13,000 Waqf establishments in UP yet to be uploaded on UMEED portalDeputy commissioner of police (South) Deependra Nath Chaudhary said the woman’s mother lodged a complaint on May 24 alleging that her daughter had been abducted by Uttam and Patel with the intent to murder.The complainant said that Patel had allegedly texted the victim on May 21 asking to meet. The woman had informed her mother about the meeting before leaving home, but she never returned and her mobile phone was switched off shortly afterwards, the DCP said.Based on the woman’s complaint, an FIR for kidnapping and suspected murder was registered against the accused at the Barra police station.During the probe, police detained Patel from Kanpur’s LLR Hospital, where he had been admitted with a gunshot wound. Investigators said they suspect he may have shot himself in an attempt to mislead police and divert suspicion.Killed the woman and dumped her body by roadsideDuring interrogation, Patel confessed that he and Uttam strangled the woman on May 21 and later carried her body in a Mahindra Scorpio (SUV) to Jahangirabad in Bulandshahr, where they dumped it by the roadside, the DCP said. He was subsequently placed under arrest on Tuesday.The investigators were unaware that an unidentified woman’s body had been recovered in Jahangirabad on May 25. The highly decomposed body was cremated as unclaimed after a post-mortem examination. However, Bulandshahr police had preserved a nose ring recovered from the body, her clothes as well as some DNA samples before the cremation, officers said.Despite Patel’s confession, investigators initially struggled to establish that the body recovered in Bulandshahr was that of the missing woman. However, the breakthrough came after the victim’s family identified the nose ring.“We had preserved the nose ring and DNA samples. The family identified the nose ring, and DNA matching is now underway,” said Bulandshahr SP (rural) Antariksh Jain.As the police intensified the manhunt for the other accused, Uttam surrendered at the Barra police station on Wednesday. The DCP said that both accused are in custody and are being interrogated.“A Barra police team has taken Patel to Bulandshahr to reconstruct the sequence of events and recover additional evidence. The vehicle used in the crime has been identified, and efforts are underway to recover it,” Chaudhary said. “Every aspect of the case is being investigated thoroughly. Strict legal action will be taken against all those found involved.”