The Gorakhpur police arrested four murder suspects, one of them a constable, on Sunday and recovered the body of the retired Sikkim government official who was kidnapped on October 2.

Pradhuman Singh had settled in Gorakhpur three years ago after his retirement and was trying to get a dealership of Hero Honda for his younger son who was jobless.

The police zeroed in on the accused after an analysis of Singh’s cellphone record. On the instruction of Senior Superintendent of Police Anand Swaroop, the police arrested Shashi Mauli Kumar, Varuvendra Tiwari, Guddu and Raj Dev late on Saturday night.

During interrogation, the accused admitted to their crime and helped the police to recover the body.

On October 1, Shashi Mauli Kumar, a constable in the Gorakhpur Police Lines called Singh posing as a representative of Hero Honda and asked him to come to a hotel near Deen Dayal Upadhaya University crossing.

Since it was late, Singh said he would meet him the following morning.

On October 2, when Singh reached the university crossing, the accused kidnapped him and took him to room number 32 of the Gautam Buddha Hostel of the university. Thereafter, Kumar and his accomplices strangulated him when he refused to pay Rs 20 lakh as ransom.

The accused kept the body in the room for two days and then dumped it in the sewage tank of the hostel.

“Kumar is a dubious man and there are several complaints against him. He was under heavy debt and knew that Singh had enough money and was trying to get a dealership,” said Swaroop.

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