Kanpur: As police delve deeper into the murder of 63-year-old medicine trader Vineet Minocha, investigators have drawn up a detailed set of questions for his daughter-in-law and accused Shalu, as well as his son Subrat. The two are expected to be brought face-to-face with investigators to cross-check their accounts and piece together the sequence of events. While Subrat has answered some questions, he has maintained silence on others.SCP West Qasim Abidi said several aspects of the case were yet to be fully established and that all three accused would be interrogated separately as well as questioned across the table.Vineet was killed at his flat on Sept 5. Police alleged that his daughter-in-law Shalu had hatched the murder conspiracy, while Vishal and Raj executed the plan.Police arrested Vishal and Raj following an encounter. According to police, Vishal told investigators that Shalu was the planner of the murder.The role of 34-year-old son Subrat has come under the scanner after police found that he allegedly refused to identify former servant and contract killer Vishal despite having spoken to him nearly 300 times in the three months before the murder. Investigators suspect Subrat deliberately withheld the identification to distance himself and his wife from the alleged conspiracy.Police found that Subrat and Vishal had spoken 309 times over the previous three months and exchanged 25 WhatsApp calls shortly before the murder. Subrat, Shalu and Vishal had also visited several places and shopped together around 20 days before Vineet was killed, police said.Police said Subrat allegedly tried to delete call history and some numbers from his phone after the incident, further deepening suspicion.BoxShalu’s plea puts police remand on holdPolice on Saturday could not secure police custody remand (PCR) of the three accused in the murder of medicine trader Vineet Minocha after the defence sought disposal of an application seeking recording of accused Shalu’s fresh statement under Section 164 CrPC before the plea was heard. The court fixed Sept 22 for further hearing.Police produced all three accused — Vineet’s daughter-in-law Shalu, former employee Vishal Gautam and his aide Raj Kishore — before the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate.Earlier, advocate Shivakant Dixit, appearing for Shalu, moved an application seeking that her fresh statement under Section 164 CrPC be recorded in court. He submitted that Shalu had told him that the investigating officer had added certain facts to her statement that she had not stated.Dixit sought disposal of the application before the police custody remand plea was taken up. The prosecution, however, argued that its PCR application was already pending and should be heard and disposed of first.The prosecution argued that police custody was essential for investigation and cross-checking the facts and accounts given by the accused, and sought their remand.Opposing the plea, Dixit said investigating officer Keshav Kumar Tiwari had stated in the application that Shalu had admitted providing a duplicate key to the flat to Vishal. However, he said, Shalu had contradicted this claim.
