Kanpur: Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Kanpur Nagar, on Friday dismissed the bail application of Vishal Gautam, a former employee and one of the accused in the murder of medicine trader Vineet Minocha (63).Vineet was allegedly stabbed 26 times by Vishal and his associate Raj Kishore on Sept 5. Investigators believe his daughter-in-law, Shalu (30), allegedly hired Gautam for Rs 6 lakh over a dispute involving CCTV cameras installed by Vineet at their apartment. She claimed her father-in-law kept a close watch on activities inside the house through the CCTV cameras and objected whenever she returned home late.Vishal and Raj were arrested after an encounter on Sept 6, while the woman was arrested the following night and sent to judicial custody.Vishal allegedly brought in Raj, 30, and the two entered the flat on Sept 5 after being identified to security personnel as medicine delivery men. The duo allegedly hid in a bedroom and planned to suffocate Vineet so that his death would appear to have been caused by a heart attack.However, when Vineet returned around 10.55pm and discovered them, the two allegedly attacked him. Police said he was stabbed repeatedly and his throat was slit before the accused fled. The postmortem found 26 stab wounds.Meanwhile, a new twist emerged when Susheela, mother of Vishal, approached the police commissioner alleging a conspiracy to make her son the main accused in the murder case.She said she had neither contacted any lawyer for Vishal’s bail nor authorised anyone to represent him, and questioned how a bail plea was filed on his behalf. She alleged it was done in collusion with the complainant and Shalu’s husband, Subrat.Call records showed Shalu, her husband Subrat and Vishal spoke 330 times in the 21 days before the murder — around 30 calls involved Shalu and nearly 300 involved Subrat.Police found during an inquiry that advocate Shivaji Singh Solanki had filed the bail plea. Solanki told police that his junior, who lived in Vishal’s neighbourhood, had met him and that Vishal had asked him to move the application.
