Seven trucks registered in the names of family members of suspended constable Arun Yadav and engaged in carrying stones have been seized by the police, an official said on Sunday.
The constable was on the radar of the SIT probing into the mysterious killing of Mahoba stone trader Indrakant Tripathi, another official said requesting anonymity.
The SIT came to know about Yadav during its probe into Tripathi’s killing, he said, adding the SIT also came to know that the suspended constable has around 12 trucks engaged in the stone transportation, seven of which were seized by police.
Yadav was earlier posted at Kabrai police station of Mahoba district but had been transferred to the Fatehganj police station on September 7, a day before stone trader Indrakant Tripathi was found with a gunshot wound in his car.
Tripathi was found critically injured on September 8, hours after he had repeated his allegations of corruption against the then Mahoba’s Superintendent of Police Manilal Patidar.
Patidar and Kabrai police station SHO were suspended by the UP government on the charges of corruption on September 9.
The 44-year-old stone trader succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Kanpur on September 13.
Yadav was suspended on Friday along with Fatehganj Police Station SHO Radhey Babu as the constable had remained absent from his new place of posting and SHO Babu had not taken any action against him.
Meanwhile, Keshav Savita, another Mahoba-based stone trader, on Sunday said Yadav was quite close to suspended SP Patidar and used to look after most of his illegal transactions.
Keshav Savita met SIT officials along with his wife and sons to record their statements on September 18. He had later told reporters that the suspended SP had demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from him in February failing which his vehicle loaded with ballast was seized on February 29 and he was asked to pay Rs 25 lakh for its release.
“When I had sent my sons to Kabrai police station in this connection the next day they were arrested and a fake case of attempt to murder was lodged against them,” Savita had said.
Meanwhile, a missing pistol belonging to slain trader Tripathi was found at his residence itself, an SIT official said on Sunday.
Indrakant Tripathi’s elder brother Ravikant handed over the pistol to the SIT on Saturday. “During the cleaning of the house, the licenced pistol was found in the house itself, which was handed over to the SIT officials on Saturday. Earlier, the SIT had taken Indrakant’s rifle from the house, but we had not found the pistol then, Ravikant said on Sunday.
He also said Indrakant used to keep the pistol with him, but it is not clear how he had left it at the house that day. Police officials said the pistol has been sent for testing to ascertain when it was fired last.
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