Absconding Lucknow murder accused Shraddha Dubey and two others held in Nagpur

Shraddha Dubey, an absconding accused in the Shiva Sharma murder case in Lucknow, has been arrested in Nagpur. Her sister and driver Danish alias Tanveer Ali were also detained. Teams of the UP STF, Lucknow Police and Nagpur Crime Branch carried out the operation together.

Police had received information that Shraddha and her sister had reached Nagpur by car from Kanpur. Uttar Pradesh Police passed the information to Nagpur Police, after which separate Crime Branch teams began a search.

Police found the car near the Ganeshpeth bus stand. Its driver said two women in burqas and a man had come to Nagpur in his car but had left by e-rickshaw a short while earlier. Police showed the driver photographs of the accused, and Danish was identified.

CCTV footage from the bus stand premises showed the three accused leaving in an e-rickshaw. Police then went through about 250 CCTV clips from various locations. In the course of the inquiry the team reached Chinchbhavan bridge and kept searching for the next location from there.

According to police, Shraddha had switched off her mobile phone but was connected to social media through the internet. The investigating team took information from an internet service provider, on the basis of which the accused were traced to the area around DP Road in Somalwada.

Police made inquiries in several housing societies in the area. During this, a security guard at Prozone Palms said three people matching the description given were staying in a flat in the building.

A police team raided the flat. According to police, those inside had sensed that police had reached them, so the three did not open the door. After informing senior officers and getting permission, police broke down the door and took the three into custody.

It was dark by the time the operation ended. As Beltarodi police station has no lockup, the three were kept overnight in the lockup of Hudkeshwar police station.

On Wednesday morning, Lucknow Police produced the three accused before Judicial Magistrate First Class S.D. Kamat and sought transit remand. The court granted 72 hours of transit remand. Police then took the three to Lucknow for further investigation.

Shraddha Dubey has been claiming she is innocent. Her alleged statement is that Shiva Sharma died by suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of a building. The circumstances of the death and the allegations will be confirmed only after investigation and legal process.

Inspector Shubhangi Deshmukh, Inspector Pappu Qadri, API Chetan Borkhede, API Nitin Chulpar, PSI Manoj Raut, PSI Amit Deshmukh and other police personnel took part in the operation under the guidance of DCP Deepak Agrawal and ACP Vaibhav Jadhav.