Three cases in states — a kidnapping in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra, a ‘murder’ in Madhya Pradesh and a car theft in Himachal Pradesh are intricately balanced on the DNA test report of a femur bone.

IN UTTAR PRADESH
On January 30, Agra resident Ajay Sharma and his neighbour Neha Saini were reported missing. While Ajay’s wife accused Neha’s father, Ramesh Singh Saini, of abducting her husband, Neha’s father counter alleged that Ajay kidnapped his daughter and hence registered a case against him in the Sikandara police station in Agra.

IN MADHYA PRADESH
On June 21, the Madhya Pradesh Police found the body of a man in Morena. The body was buried and the belongings retained by police. On receiving information, Ajay’s family went to Morena on June 27 and his wife identified the belongings as Ajay’s. Consequently, Manju Sharma accused Ramesh Saini of murdering her husband. On her request and the magistrate’s order, the body was exhumed and sent for another postmortem, in which the doctors removed the bone.

IN HIMACHAL
In August, a Himachal Pradesh police team reached Agra to investigate a car theft in which Ajay and Neha had been named as accused. The owner of the car, Nirmal Massih, a resident of Kangra, had lodged an FIR on June 24 that a couple hired his car to go to Chandigarh on June 17, but never returned. On investigation, police found that Ajay and Neha had been living in Kangra under fake names — Vijay Sharma and Anu Sharma. The third person named in the case was Ajay’s friend, Tilak Dhari.
“During investigation, we procured the call details of the couple’s phone. This helped us reach Agra, where we conducted a search at the residences of Ajay and Neha,” said Sub-Inspector Subhash Rana of the HP Police, who is probing the car-theft case. He added, “We also got the call details of Tilak Dhari’s cellphone. We found that Dhari was using the cellphone of Ajay’s sister, Neelam Sharma. We arrested Neelam, but she refused to give information.” Currently, the UP Police has decided to get a DNA test conducted on the bone to ascertain whether the body found in Madhya Pradesh was that of Ajay. “On learning that doctors at the Madhya Pradesh hospital had extracted the femur, we requested them to send the bone to us. We have approached the forensic laboratory for conducting the test,” said in-charge of Sikandara police station A K Singh.
Neha’s father Ramesh Singh Saini said: “We visit the police station regularly hoping that they have some information on the whereabouts of my daughter. I had registered a case against Ajay only after I was confirmed that he was involved in the kidnapping.”