Body of missing Moradabad trader found, police suspect he was abducted

The police said Kuldeep used to run a motor spare parts shop in Pakwara’s Dhariwal Nagar area. Moradabad Circle Officer Mahesh Chandra Gautam said the trader’s family told investigators that he went to his shop on Friday morning. An hour later, Kuldeep told one of his employees that he was going to a hospital to meet someone. He reportedly left with an unidentified person on his bike.

A few minutes later, Kuldeep called his wife Suneeta, asking her to withdraw Rs 4 lakh from his bank account and hand it over to his employee Mustafa. The police said the businessman told Mustafa to collect the money from his wife at the bank. Suneeta followed her husband’s instructions.

“After Mustafa returned to shop, Kuldeep called him and told him to give the money to a person he was sending. On Kuldeep’s directions, Mustafa handed over the money to the person,” said Assistant Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar Anand.

About an hour later, Suneeta called her husband. Kuldeep informed her that he had received the money, said officials. In the evening, when her husband did not return, Suneeta called him and found his cellphone switched off. When Kuldeep’s phone remained switched off for a long time, she called her brother-in-law and alerted him, said the police.

Late in the evening, the police filed an abduction case at the Pakwara station. “Kuldeep’s call detail record shows he made calls to several persons, including wife, Mustafa and also his neighbour, from his cellphone on Friday. Kuldeep’s cellphone was switched off around 3.30 pm,” said Amit Kumar, adding that his last location was neighbouring Bijnor district.

On Saturday evening, the police received information about a body found in the Shyohara area of Bijnor. A team went to the spot and Kuldeep’s family identified the body, said Gautam.

Superintendent of Police Prabhakar Chaudhary said teams had been set up to investigate the murder, and claimed the case would be solved soon.

This is the fourth abduction reported in Uttar Pradesh in the last 10 days. On Wednesday, the Chandauli police arrested four people and rescued a local doctor who had been kidnapped on May 31 while returning home from his clinic. The police also recovered the Rs 40.50 lakh cash that Dr Amreshwar Das Maurya’s family had paid the kidnappers.

On Friday, the Fatehpur police recovered the body of a 15-year-old boy who had been kidnapped from outside his home on June 1. The body, with injury marks around the neck, was recovered from a well close to the house in the Malwan police station area.

Meanwhile, the police are still trying to locate a newly elected block development member in Bulandshahr who went missing on May 28 after going to a market in Bahapur to fetch some items.

The police are looking for Mohit Singh’s political rival Saurabh Singh and have arrested five people named in the FIR, including Saurabh’s mother and wife. No ransom call has been made so far.