A dramatic twist in the Ekta Gupta murder case: The Kanpur police managed to get a 48-hour remand for gym trainer Vimal Soni, the prime accused. While the prosecution demanded a seven-day remand, the chief judicial magistrate granted it only two days after hearing arguments from special prosecution officer Ajay Srivastava.
Soni will likely be sent to police custody on Wednesday by 8 AM and shall remain in their custody until Friday, 8 AM, as the court order has been received. DCP (East) Shravan Kumar Singh refused to comment on the facts of the case, for which reason the remand term is short.
No definite motive for the murder has been established by the police. They sought the remand to recover crucial evidence like Ekta’s mobile phone and gym bag. Soni claimed that he had thrown those items between Company Bagh Crossing and Rawatpur Crossing, an area known to have a lesser frequency of traffic.
Earlier, police found Ekta’s gym towel in Soni’s car, along with a broken SIM card, a damaged clutch, and a rope. Soni’s car was found outside his sister’s residence at Juhi Military Camp.
Ekta Gupta, the wife of businessman Rahul Gupta, went missing on June 24 from the gym in Green Park Stadium. Like Soni, Gupta, the husband filed a kidnapping FIR against him after the car and all the things inside it were found on Tuesday.
Four months later, Soni was arrested at Kanpur. There, he confessed to killing Ekta in the parking lot of the gymnasium. He related that he first hit her on the neck and then strangled her with a rope before burying her body near the Officers’ Club adjacent to the district magistrate’s house. On 27 October, the police discovered her skeleton at the place he pointed out.
Due to the short remand, plans to reconstruct the crime scene with Lucknow forensic experts have been kept on hold. Efforts are now focused on knowing what motivated the crime and recovering the gym bag and mobile phone.
Besides, the court allowed the application by Ekta’s mother, Sunita Gupta, to request DNA sampling to be matched with samples collected from the skeleton. A medical team will collect the sample from her residence in Shuklagunj, Unnao.
Matters were complicated because the CCTV cameras at the Green Park parking lot were not working on June 24, the day Ekta went missing. DCP Singh confirmed that the cameras at the parking lot and the Officers’ Club were non-functional during that time.
On the morning of her disappearance, Soni began calling Ekta as early as 4 AM. While one call was answered, eight others went unanswered. Ekta hadn’t been to the gym for the last 20 days before June 24, when Ekta and Soni reportedly chatted 34 times. Authorities suspect Ekta was compelled to return to the gym. She was last seen entering the gym at 5:53 AM and leaving at 7:02 AM.
