NTPC employee found dead in Prayagraj, murder suspected

The body of a 30-year-old NTPC employee was found in a dried canal near Deha village under Karachana police station in trans-Yamuna area of the district on Tuesday morning.

Station house officer (SHO) Anoop Saroj arrived at the scene upon receiving information and initially attempted to identify the body, but in vain. However later, after the victim’s photograph circulated on social media, the deceased was identified as 30-year-old Dheeraj Mishra, an NTPC employee, who had come to his in-laws’ place to attend a wedding function.

On the complaint of the deceased’s father-in-law Ashok Gautam, the police have registered an FIR against unknown persons and an investigation is now underway, police officials said.

As per the police, the victim, a resident of Medhauli under Amiliya police station of Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, was married to Pratibha, daughter of Ashok Gautam, resident of Khajuraul village of Karachana, Prayagraj.

Dheeraj was employed in NTPC-Unchahar. He had come to his in-laws’ house in Khajuraul on May 4 to attend his wife’s cousin sister that took place on May 5 in Lakatha Babura village. As per kin, Dheeraj left on his bike on Monday night at around 8 pm, telling his wife that he would come in a little while and attend the wedding.

But he did not return even after many hours and his mobile phone also went unanswered. Pratibha went to attend the wedding with her brother, taking her seven-year-old daughter Radhika.

The next day, on Tuesday morning, the family members came to know that Dheeraj’s blood-soaked body had been found in a dry canal with marks of serious injury on the head.

ACP Karachana Varun Kumar confirmed that there was an injury mark on the head of the victim. “The cause and time of death will become clear only after the post-mortem report comes. An FIR has been registered in this connection and all angles will be investigated. The bike of the victim has been found abandoned near a private school in Amilon, around 3 km away from the spot where the body was found,” he said.

Police suspect that the killers first threw the body in the canal and then parked the bike in a deserted place and fled. The deceased’s wife Pratibha said that someone called Dheeraj on his mobile phone at around 8 pm on Monday night and only after this, he left on his bike.

Family members informed the police that deceased Dheeraj Mishra’s eldest brother Sudhir Mishra, who lived with his family in Mumbai, also suddenly went missing from Mumbai two and a half months ago. A missing person’s report has been registered in this connection in Mumbai.