After evading arrest for two years in the alleged murder case of a businessman in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba district, a 2014-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Manilal Patidar on Saturday, October 15, finally surrendered at a court in Lucknow.

Though reports said the additional district and sessions judge sent Patidar, who carried a bounty of Rs 1 lakh, to judicial custody, the state police was yet to comment on the matter. Several questions relating to the sensational case remain unanswered and with Patidar in custody, the family of the deceased businessman has finally got hope of justice.

On September 5, 2020, Indrakant Tripathi, a businessman involved in the explosives trade in the Bundelkhand district's Mahoba, in a video addressed to chief minister Adityanath alleged that Patidar, then district police chief (Mahoba SP), threatened to eliminate him after he refused to pay the officer Rs 6 lakh per month as extortion sum.

Two days later, Indrakant was found in his luxury car with a bullet wound in his neck. He succumbed to the injury a week later.

The Uttar Pradesh government suspended Patidar on charges of corruption and extortion. A first information report (FIR) was also lodged against Patidar on charges of attempt to murder (later converted to murder) and criminal conspiracy at Kabrai police station on the complaint of Indrakant's brother, Ravikant Tripathi.

Then SHO Devendra Shukla, two local businessmen and unidentified police personnel were also accused of "conspiring" to murder Indrakant, while a probe was launched into Patidar’s assets through the vigilance department. While the others were arrested, Patidar continued to be free.

Also read: UP Police Is Now Disregarding Adityanath's Orders and Helping a Cop Get Away With Murder

In his defence, before absconding, Patidar had dismissed the allegations against him and said that Indrakant had issued the video as he was irked by the police action over his illegal gambling business and for his protection.

Multiple twists

However, in a twist to the case, on September 26, 2020, a special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe the case concluded that Indrakant may have shot himself with his own pistol from close range. From the investigation it was clear that Indrakant was shot from the front and that the bullet was fired from close range inside the car, ADG Prayagraj Prem Prakash, a senior police officer, had said then. The bullet was found lodged in the seat of the car and the pistol was lying between Indrakant’s feet, police said.

Prakash had also said that the ballistic probe of the seven pistols recovered in the case – four of the accused persons, two of the businessman’s partners and one belonging to the businessman himself – showed that he was shot with his own licenced pistol.

Also read: Allahabad HC Orders UP Government to Investigate Case of 'Missing' Police Officer

According to the SIT, Indrakant harboured a feeling of deep insecurity and was on the brink of a breakdown after a video went viral showing him gambling. A gambling case had been filed at a local police station in August that year and though it did not feature Indrakant, his name was added to the FIR later, said police.

In his complaint, however, Indrakant's brother, Ravikant, alleged that after receiving death threats from the IPS officer, Indrakant had on September 8, 2020 announced that he would hold a press conference the next day to expose the officer with evidence. However, at around 2:30 pm on the same day, Indrakant was found shot in his car on the Kabrai-Banda road, said Ravikant.

The charges of murder and conspiracy were downgraded to abetment of suicide following the SIT probe. Remarkably, the SIT reached the conclusion that Indrakant may have shot himself even without interrogating the suspended IPS officer Patidar. He could not turn up for questioning as he was COVID-19 positive, his lawyer informed the SIT, according to the police.

Since Patidar was officially untraceable, police declared a bounty on him, which rose up to Rs 1 lakh at the time of his surrender. A manhunt was launched by police and teams were also sent to his hometown Dungarpur in Rajasthan during the course of the investigation.

The matter reached Allahabad high court, which first refused to provide Patidar relief from arrest and later rejected his plea for anticipatory bail.

In another twist, a lawyer Mukut Nath Verma filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court on behalf of Patidar and demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter, apprehending that Patidar’s life may be in danger and that he may be in illegal custody of the state.

In May 2021, Verma told the court that Patidar had been conducting operations against the mining mafia and as a result, he was falsely implicated in a few cases as his relation with "certain section in the administration got sour". Verma further claimed in court that Patidar was going to unravel some foul play in the administration and that he may have been in the "unlawful custody" of the state.

In a subsequent order, a division bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi on May 27, 2021 noted that an IPS officer having gone missing for many months was a “serious issue” and directed the Yogi Adityanath-led government to investigate if Patidar was "dead or alive" and what efforts were made to apprehend him.

Arguing in court, the Uttar Pradesh government said that since Patidar was trying to evade arrest, he got the habeas corpus petition filed to malign the administration with an "oblique purpose".

On October 15, 2022, while speaking to this reporter from Mahoba, Ravikant, Indrakant’s brother, said he still does not find any merit in the police version of abetment to suicide. The investigating officer "can convert the hatya (murder) into atmahatya (suicide) or durghatna (accident)", he said.

"What can I do about that? The court will decide what it was. Everything will be clear in the trial. I lodged a complaint under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) and it was upgraded to section 302 (murder)."

Ravikant, who had on several occasions accused the police of protecting Patidar, said the suspended officer’s surrender after two years did ignite hopes of justice but he was still living in fear. It was a failure of the police that they could not arrest Patidar despite deploying so many teams, he said. "After ripping the law system to shreds, he surrendered on his own," said Ravikant, who is also a lawyer.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had raised the matter of the absconding Patidar during his 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election campaign to accuse the Yogi Adityanath government of protecting tainted police officers.

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