Lab that tested IITian HIV positive claims it doesn't have facility

BETUL (MP): In a fresh twist to investigations into gruesome killing of a woman and her two young daughters by an IITian in Betul district, the Chhatarpur lab which the accused claimed had reported him HIV positive doesn’t have basic testing facilities. Faced with tough questions from police, accused IITian Praveen Manwar voluntarily gave his consent to undergo narco-analysis test on Friday.
Speaking to TOI, Mahesh Awasthi, proprietor, Awasthi Pathology, said, “We don’t test blood samples for HIV/AIDS.We haven’t got samples of a person named Praveen Manwar in last one year.” Multai police has dispatched its team to Chhatarpur to substantiate claims and check records of the lab. “We have been told the lab has no HIV testing facility. Let us see if they have any records,” ASP Gitesh Garg told TOI. Fearing he had contracted HIV, 39-year-old IITian had set his wife and kids ablaze in a car before attempting to kill himself in Multai on March 4. The accused was produced before district court on Friday which remanded him to four days police custody. Another police team dispatched to forest area in Maharashtra could not find evidence, suggesting Praveen attempted suicide after killing his family. Multai police are suspicious about his story of ghastly killings following contradictory statements.
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“There is no evidence to corroborate his statements. We would continue investigations. We cannot rely on his statements,” said the ASP. Refusing to believe his suicide-pact story, police had sent his blood samples for tests which tested negative.
The family went to Amravati on February 28, where the couple planned to kill the children first and then hang themselves. Manwar said he drove to Betul on March 4 with wife, Shilpa, and daughters, Sharvani, 9, and Praneeti, 2, inside and then set ablaze the car. He told police, he got out as he could not muster the courage to kill himself.