Suspect in Kavita disappearence surrenders, CBI probe demanded

The main suspect in connection with the disappearance of a Meerut college lecturer on Sunday surrendered in Noida and claimed she was "alive and held captive" by two Uttar Pradesh ministers as the opposition Congress demanded a CBI probe into the case.

Of three bodies found in Meerut and Baghpat recently, one could be that of 29-year-old Kavita Rani who was reported missing from a women's hostel after November 22, Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police Navneet Sikhera said.

He said a case station under sections 364 (abduction with intent to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code has been registered against several persons.

Ravindra Pradhan, the main suspect in the reported kidnap and murder of the lecturer, surrendered at the office of a news channel in Noida and was arrested by a police team led by DSP Dinesh Yadav at around 11.30 am.

He was then taken to Meerut and would be produced before a court on Monday morning.

Pradhan claimed Kavita was "alive and is held captive somewhere". He told reporters, "Two UP ministers can reveal where she is" and denied any involvement in the disappearance of the temporary lecturer of Chaudhry Charan Singh University.

State Congress chief Salman Khursheed told reporters in Lucknow, "An impartial investigation is possible only if a CBI inquiry is ordered," and also demanded immediate dismissal of the ministers concerned.

UP Basic Education Minister Kiranpal Singh, however, denied involvement in the lecturer's disappearance and said his name was "being dragged into it due to personal enmity."

In an FIR lodged by Kavita's brother in Siana police station in Bulandshahr district, Ravindra Pradhan of Chandpur (Bulandshahr), Sundar (Pallavpuram in Meerut), Harinder, Pradhan (Rajpura in Meerut) and Trilok (head of Ghimera village in Bulandshahr) and other unidentified persons have been named, Sikhera.

Pradhan told the news channel that Kavita's brother had implicated him in a false case and he was innocent.

Kavita, who is reported to have links with two ministers in the Samajwadi Party-led government and a former minister, was last seen after returning from her Ghansoorpur village in Bulandshahar district where she had gone for Diwali.

When her brother tried contacting her on October 29, her mobile phone was switched off.

Some letters, believed to be in the handwriting of Kavita, were recovered by police from her room in the Indira Gandhi Girls' Hostel in Meerut on November 1 that indicate she and her family would be "murdered if she did not marry a particular man", Sikhera said on Saturday.