Con brother possibly mastermind behind Rudraksh's killing: Police

JAIPUR: After nailing the Kota businessman, an accused in the kidnap and murder case of Rudraksh, along with his absconding brother on Monday, the Kota police have not ruled out his brother Anoop could be the mastermind in planning the crime. After bringing the duo to Kota, the police will interrogate them and find out if it was Anoop who ideated the kidnap since his brother was in debts of nearly Rs 1.5 crore.
Ankur Padia, the accused was arrested from Kanpur on Monday, along with his brother Anoop who was arrested by the Kota police team from Lucknow. Since Anoop was already an absconder in police files since 2009 in cheating and forgery cases, the police thinks there is a possibility that he could have orchestrated the kidnap and murder. "We had a standing warrant against him since he had escaped from police custody in Jaipur after he was arrested in fraud and cheating cases for crores in Kota and Jaipur," said a senior police officer.
On the breakthrough, a senior officer said, "It appears that initially Ankur had asked his brother for financial help and when it did not work out he was advised to plan a kidnap of a child whose parents are well off and can pay a ransom up to Rs 2 crore."
"In the investigation so far one thing has become clear that Anoop has helped his brother with arranging his hideouts after the kidnap and murder. We will certainly probe if he actually persuaded his brother Ankur to kidnap for money to pay back bookies," said Amandeep Singh Kapoor, superintendent of police, Kota.
Police said that while they were on a trail of Ankur Padia it was found that he was continuously calling up a number. "That mobile number was kept on surveillance. Likewise, we had some inputs that Ankur could have taken shelter in Uttar Pradesh where his absconding brother was hiding for a long time. In the kidnap and murder case the one thing that was clear was that Ankur had some facilitator. On Sunday evening, we got some inputs on the whereabouts of the fleeing brothers and our team which was already in Uttar Pradesh was alerted," said a senior police officer.
On October 13, Ankur had slipped from the hands of Kota police, but this time they kept the whole operation very secret. "Only a few officers were looking after it and we had strictly instructed them to not share anything related to the progress of the case. Even, whenever I asked they told me that they were moving in positive direction without sharing minor details," said a senior officer of Rajasthan police headquarters.
Crime line
October 9 - 7-year-old Rudraksh went missing from a park near his house at around 5:30 pm in Kota. At 7:30 pm, the kidnapper introducing himself as Mohammed Jazar demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore from the boy's father Punit Handa, a manager at Central Cooperative Bank
October 10 - Rudraksh's dead body was found in a canal at Jakmund village in Bundi
October 14 - Kota police, after working on several clues, termed Ankur Padia to be the kingpin of the kidnap and murder of the boy
October 15- Kota police sent teams to several places in Delhi, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh
October 25- Police got some inputs including technical evidences which suggested that Ankur could have made a hideout in Uttar Pradesh and teams were then sent to the places
October 26 - After it was confirmed that Ankur was hiding in a congested colony of Kanpur a police team in plain cloths camped in the area
October 27 - Police arrested Ankur from Kanpur and his brother Anoop from Lucknow