UP: After 7 years, CBI cracks elderly couple’s murder case, cops’ role under lens

LUCKNOW: Seven years after the decomposed bodies of an elderly couple were recovered from their residence in Badaun, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has finally traced the killers.

The victims, Brajendra Gupta, 77, and his wife Shanno, 73, were found dead in their house in Badaun on April 8, 2015.

The assailants were identified as

Uday Prakash Verma

, his father

Radhey Shyam

Verma and brother

Yogesh Kumar Verma

.

While Uday committed suicide in 2019, Radhey Shyam died last year. The third accused, Yogesh, has been arrested and sent to judicial custody.

A charge sheet has been filed in the local CBI court in Lucknow and the role of an IPS officer and two other non-gazetted police officials is under scanner.

According to CBI officials,

Shikhar Gupta

, the eldest son of the deceased couple, had moved the court claiming that his father was pursuing the fake encounter case of his younger brother, Mukul Gupta, by Bareilly police. He suspected the involvement of cops in the murder of his parents.

The case was transferred to the special crime branch of Lucknow CBI on August 8, 2016.

CBI officials said Mukul Gupta was killed in an encounter on June 30, 2007, in Bareilly. His father Brajendra Kumar Gupta had moved the court after which the case was transferred to CBI in 2010.

Later, CBI filed a charge sheet against nine policemen and sought sanction for prosecution against an IPS officer who was then the additional superintendent of police.

When no action was taken by the government in this connection, Brajendra filed a petition urging the court to grant prosecution. Before the counter affidavit in the case could be filed, Brajendra and his wife were murdered.

CBI officials said the blind murder case was worked out after 13 exhibits, including two blood-stained quilts and wall scrapings containing traces of blood, were sent to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad.

The first blood report of a suspect, Radhey Shyam Verma, 71, a neighbour of the couple, slightly matched with the blood sample found at the crime spot.

“Blood samples of other members of Radhey Shyam’s family were taken for examination. We later came to know that Radhey Shyam’s elder son Uday Prakash Verma had committed suicide and his younger son Yogesh was not living with his parents. The forensic test result showed similarity between the DNA of Uday’s children and the one found in the blood sample at the crime spot,” a CBI official said.

Uday’s wife revealed during interrogation that her husband used to talk about robbery. It also came to light that Verma’s financial condition was not good before 2015 but suddenly after the twin murders, he got Rs 14.5 lakh in his bank account. The brothers also visited Haldwani to get gold and silver ornaments melted.

CBI further collected evidence on how the looted jewellery and cash was shared among Uday Prakash, his father Radhey Shyam and brother Yogesh. Radhey Shyam died on October 25, 2021.

Officials said the role of an inspector, a police head constable and an IPS officer was being investigated.

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