Woman’s body in a field, self-inflicted gunshot: How Kanpur Police cracked a murder case

3 min readLucknowUpdated: Jun 4, 2026 06:19 PM IST

On May 22, Bulandshahr Police recovered the body but as her identity could not be established, she was later cremated as per procedure, investigators said. (Special Arrangement)

A nose pin and a sacred kalewa thread on her wrist: That’s how Kanpur Police identified a 21-year-old woman, 10 days after her body was found dumped in a Bulandshahr field nearly 400 km from her home.

Police said the victim, who had been missing on May 21, was killed after she filed a complaint against the manager of a private hospital in Unnao, Devkant Uttam (40), alleging he had sexually assaulted her on the false promise of marriage.

Police Thursday arrested Uttam, his nephew Vivek Patel (30), and a security guard at the hospital, Ajeet Singh (30), in connection with the case, said the Station House Officer of the police station concerned in Kanpur. All three are from Unnao.

According to police, the victim lived with her mother in a rented flat in Kanpur and was preparing for competitive examinations. She came in contact with Uttam when she underwent treatment at the hospital last year and they kept in touch, said police.

On May 19, police said the woman filed the complaint against Uttam and went missing the same day. The accused had allegedly abducted and murdered her in Kanpur, and her body was later dumped in Bulandshahr to conceal her identity and cover their tracks.

During questioning, police said Uttam claimed the woman was pressuring him to marry her but he refused. He claimed that she filed a case against him. So, he hatched a plan to get rid of her.

How the case was cracked

It was on May 24 that police received information about the missing woman. Her mother filed a kidnapping complaint alleging that Uttam, Vivek and his associates had abducted her daughter and expressed fears that she had been killed.

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Around the same time, police received information that Vivek had also filed a complaint in Unnao, claiming he had been shot in the stomach by unidentified assailants. A police team kept watch at the hospital where he was undergoing treatment and questioned him once he was discharged.

According to police, Vivek admitted to his role in the woman’s killing. During questioning, he allegedly told police that on May 21, acting on the instructions of Uttam, he called the victim to a location in Kanpur. When she arrived, he asked her to get into a car where Uttam lay in wait and allegedly strangled her to death.

Police said Vivek then drove to the hospital where Uttam got out and Ajeet got in. They drove to Bulandshahr, where the duo dumped the body in a field.

On May 22, Bulandshahr Police recovered the body but as her identity could not be established, she was later cremated as per procedure, investigators said.

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On Tuesday (June 2), a Kanpur Police team travelled to Bulandshahr along with the victim’s mother. There, she identified the body based on personal belongings that had been recovered with the remains, including a nose pin and a kalawa, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kanpur, Deependra Nath Chaudhary.

This confirmed to the police that the unidentified body was that of the 21-year-old woman.

But who shot Vivek? Police said he had allegedly inflicted the gunshot wound on himself to implicate someone in another case.