Lucknow, Oct 29 (PTI) A court here on Saturday sent suspended SP of Mahoba Manilal Patidar to 24-hour police custody for questioning in connection with the death of a local businessman in 2020.

The custody period began at 6 pm Saturday and will continue till 6 pm Sunday. The order came on an application by investigating officer Satish Chandra.

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Businessman Indrakant Tripathi was shot dead in 2020. It is alleged that days before his death, he had, in a video, expressed apprehension that he might be killed by Mahoba SP Patidar.

Patidar is also accused of taking bribes from the businessman. It has also been alleged that Patidar had demanded a bribe of Rs 6 lakh per month from Tripathi.

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Days after the video surfaced on social media, Tripathi was shot under suspicious circumstances. He died five days later while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kanpur.

A case was lodged by the deceased's brother Ravikant Tripathi on September 11, 2020, at Kabrai police station in Mahoba.

The Uttar Pradesh government eventually suspended Manilal Patidar and announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his arrest. He surrendered before a court on October 15 this year.

While moving the application in court seeking the remand of Patidar, the investigating officer said the suspended SP had claimed that he had hidden his mobile phone in the ground in the backyard of his government accommodation.

In such circumstances, it is necessary that Patidar be sent to police custody to recover the phone, the application stated, adding the mobile phone was used for sending video clips.

While passing the order, the court directed that no coercive action would be taken against Patidar during police custody.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)