The mystery behind the death of shipping company employee Pradeep Yadav has only deepened after 24 hours of investigation. The police has evidence indicating that the deceased might have stolen money from his friend, and may have killed himself out of guilt or for fear of being caught.
On Wednesday evening, Yadav was found dead near a nullah in the Malad Link Road with a gunshot wound to his head.
A note in his pocket instructed the reader to check a 12-minute recording on his cellphone. Although the voice recording is not very clear due to a lot of background noise, the police has been able to discern a conversation about a theft at the friend’s house, where Yadav was staying before he went missing and turned up dead.
“The conversation refers to an incident on April 16, where the cupboard in the friend’s bedroom was broken open and an ATM card stolen. We have found that `33,000 were withdrawn from the friend’s account using the stolen card. CCTV footage of an ATM in Kandivali identifies Yadav as the withdrawer,” said Manohar Harpude, assistant inspector, Malad police station.
On May 11, Yadav’s friend, who was in his hometown, called the deceased to say that he was returning. Yadav went missing the same day, and was ultimately found dead on Wednesday.
The police was in for a further surprise when the body was examined during post-mortem.
“Yadav was found to be clutching a live round in his fist. It seems likely that he shot himself, and was carrying an extra round just in case the first shot failed. Ballistic examination has shown that the bullet in Yadav’s head was fired from a country-made gun, known as a katta, which generally fires only one round at a time,” Mr Harpude said.
Further, the police said Yadav’s body did not show any evidence of a struggle. This strongly goes against the possibility of murder.