Prayagraj: Fatehpur police on Sunday arrested five persons, including two women, on charges of conspiring and killing a man whose body was found lying near the Bakandha brick kiln area under the limits of Kotwali police station on Jul 29. The deceased was identified as Ramprakash Gupta, resident of Radhanagar.Those arrested are Shiva Lodhi, Ishu Lodhi, Anil Kumar, Meena (wife of Anil Kumar) and Shyma (wife of Jitendra Lodhi), residents of Nasirpur (Fatehpur). Police also seized two country-made pistols of 0.315 bore along with two live cartridges, two bikes, three mobile phones and Rs 1,310 cash from them.Police said Gupta was in a dispute with his father, amid which, their house in Radhanagar was sold for Rs 75 lakh in Nov 2024. From the proceeds, Rs 37.5 lakh went to the father, Rs 27.5 lakh to Gupta, while Rs 10 lakh was placed in a fixed deposit (FD) in the name of the Gupta’s daughter.The investigation revealed that prime accused, Anil Kumar, opened a joint bank account with the deceased and took control of maximum part of the funds. Anil also manipulated the mobile number linked to the account and handled all transactions. Cases under NDPS Act had previously been registered against the prime accused and his wife, Meena, in 2021.Exploiting Gupta’s drug addiction, the accused influenced him and had even accommodated him in their own home after the house was sold.It also came to light during investigation that around Rs 2.5 lakh out of Gupta’s funds was used to buy a motorcycle and Anil handed over about Rs 5 lakh to his relative, Krishna Kumar ( who is absconding), under the pretext of investment.When the deceased began demanding his Rs 7.5 lakh back, the accused conspired to eliminate him. On the night of the incident, Shiva and Ishu, along with Anil, took the deceased away on a motorcycle and served him alcohol until he was intoxicated and then Shiva shot and killed him with an illegal country-made pistol.Shiva is the nephew of Anil and Ishu is his friend. Anil promised them a share of the money for committing the murder.
