What was earlier assumed to be a blind murder (unintended), in the case of a dead body being found buried at the RIICO Industrial Area, Gudli on 2nd January, has now turned out to be a pre-meditated murder, after investigations by the police.

S.P. Ajaypal Singh Lamba informed that Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh police had been informed by the Udaipur team about the incident and their assistance is being taken. Police teams from both these states will soon be sent to Udaipur for assisting in the operation.

As informed by the Police, The deceased man was identified as Lakhan Lodhi, resident of Chatarpur, M.P and the persons named as possible assailants have been identified as Ram Ratan Prajapati, his nephew Ranjeet and his friends Govind and Shiv Narayan; Ram Ratan’s Son-In-law Bablu, all hailing from Chatarpur, as per police.

This identification and further information was gathered by the police when the team spoke to Shila, the partner of the deceased man. She informed the police that she was working as labor with Lakhan and the accused at Vakratund Pharmaceuticals Factory at RIICO Industrial area. Since the factory is under construction the contract of the construction had been given to Ram Ratan through a local source.

After getting this contract, Ram came to Udaipur with Lakhan , Shila and three more people; all of them were staying at a room situated in the factory. Lakhan and the accused had arguments regarding Shila as all the accused were having negative intentions about Shila and Lakhan did not like that.

On the night of the murder when he had the argument on the same issue the accused made a plan to kill him and killed him by strangulating him with a rope, which was done in front of Shila, as per Police.

Shila Informed the police that at that night they offered liquor to Lakhan and once he consumed a huge amount of it they pushed off the 20 ft Boundary wall of the Factory. After this they strangulated him with a rope and dragged him to a small river situated 1 km away from the factory and buried his body.

All this while, Shila had tried to intervene but the accused threatened her and sent her to Chattarpur.

Police Procedure

Once the police started their investigations, they found marks of dragging near the spot. On the other hand, when police reached the factory they found that the construction work was stopped as all the laborers were gone. On interrogation, it was found that all labor belonged to Chattarpur.

A police team was then sent to Chattarpur where the relatives of the deceased man identified him as Lakhan by seeing his photograph. Lakhan’s parents informed police that previously Lakhan had left the village with a local girl Shila.

Shila also informed the police that she was married to a middle aged man in her village but as she was not happy with that marriage she eloped with Lakhan from the village and her husband had lodged a missing person complaint.

When she went back to her village after the incident, the police handed her over to her husband, but due to fear, she did not inform the police about Lakhan’s murder.