837 days after Ekta Gupta went missing in Kanpur, a crucial question in the murder case remains unanswered: whether the skeleton recovered from a pit at the Officers’ Club adjoining the district magistrate’s residence actually belonged to her. With the case already in trial, police are still awaiting the DNA report that could establish the identity of the remains.
During questioning, he allegedly revealed that Ekta had been murdered. Her gym trainer, Vimal Kumar alias Vimal Soni, a resident of Shakkar Mill Khalwa, was named as the accused. In the Ekta case, however, the report has remained pending. The initial delay was in arresting the accused, allowing the buried body to decompose to the point that only skeletal remains were recovered. The subsequent delay in obtaining the DNA report has left a crucial evidentiary question unresolved. Acting on his information, police dug up a pit at the Officers’ Club and claimed to have recovered bones and skeletal remains of Ekta. The court framed charges relating to abduction, murder and destruction of evidence, and the trial is now under way. Several prosecution witnesses have already recorded their statements.
The case began on June 24, 2024, when Ekta’s husband, Rahul Gupta, a Civil Lines resident, lodged a complaint at Kotwali police station alleging that his wife had been abducted after being drugged. DNA reports involving skeletal remains generally take 45 to 90 days, according to police sources. Police arrested Vimal four months later, on October 6. Police subsequently filed a 70-page chargesheet against Vimal.
ADGC Sanjay Kumar Jha said the court had recorded the statements of Ekta’s husband Rahul Gupta, her brother Himanshu Gupta, FSL scientists, the woman sub-inspector who prepared the inquest report and the doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination.
“Both the police and the court have written to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Jhansi seeking the report.
Joint commissioner of police (JCP), crime and headquarters, Sankalp Sharma, said the DNA report was crucial to the investigation. In all likelihood, it will arrive within a week or two,” he said.
