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Ex-Minister of U.P in judicial custody

LUCKNOW: Former Minister of State in the Mayawati Government Anand Sen Yadav, an accused in the Shashi kidnapping and murder case, was on Sunday sent on 14 days judicial remand by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Faizabad.

The former Minister, who had managed to elude the police dragnet since November last year, had surrendered in the Ghazipur police station in Lucknow on Saturday and was immediately whisked away to Faizabad.

Shashi was reported missing on October 22, 2007. She never returned home from her college and neither has her body been retrieved despite several attempts of the investigating teams.

The former Minister is the third person, allegedly involved in the sensational case, to have been arrested by the police. His driver, Vijay Sen was arrested in November last year and another prime suspect, Seema Azad, on June 8, 2008.

Mr. Yadav’s surrendered only after the CJM court issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him on Friday. A former Minister of State for Food Processing, he was dropped from the ministry on November 6, 2007 by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister after his name cropped up as a possible suspect in the kidnapping and murder of the 24-year-old student of Saket Post Graduate Degree College in Faizabad. It is alleged that the former Minister was having an affair with Shashi and her insistence on legalising their relationship allegedly led to her abduction. In the First Information Report, the girl’s father, Yogesh Prasad, held the former Minister responsible for Shashi’s disappearance. He suspected that his daughter could have been murdered. The driver, Vijay Sen and Shashi’s friend, Seema Azad, were also named as accused in the FIR.

Following his arrest in November 2007, the driver was taken on police remand. He is reported to have told the police that the girl’s body had been thrown into the Gomti river near Hariyapur village in the neighbouring Sultanpur district. However, as of date the deceased’s body has not been recovered notwithstanding several attempts by the police divers and boatmen to dish out the body from the river.

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Ex-Minister of U.P in judicial custody

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