The case of missing Mumbai-based fashion designer Aadesh Bajpai is proving tough for the Kanpur police.

Though a fresh investigation has been ordered, the Investigating Officer (IO) was transferred even before he could begin.

The new IO is AK Upadhyay, the new Station Officer of Kalyanpur. He is the sixth officer to take charge of the case in the last 11 months.

The fresh investigations were ordered after the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, failed to extract DNA from the skull and bones recovered from IIT-K premises.

Bajpai, a Mumbai-based fashion designer reached Kanpur on August 10, 2008 and had gone missing from Moolganj. On August 23, a human skull and a few bones were recovered from the IIT-K premises and investigations indicated a connection.

On August 13, a case of “missing person” had been registered at the Moolganj police station, which was later changed to abduction.

From Sub-Inspector Ramveer Singh, the charge of investigation was handed over to RP Tiwari, the then Station Officer (SO) of Moolganj.

In October 2008, the case was transferred to Kalyanpur and Sub-Inspector Rana Pratap was appointed the Investigating Officer. Thereafter, the in-charge of the Special Operation Group, Rishikant Shukla, took over. Last month, Shukla was transferred. On June 27, SO of Kalyanpur, Somdutt Sharma, was made the Investigating Officer and on July 5, the charge was handed over to Upadhyay. Officiating DIG and SP (Traffic) Ram Lal Verma said: “As no DNA could be recovered from the skull and bones, we had no option but to start fresh investigation.” He said the transfer of Kalyanpur SO will not have any impact on the investigation.