Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 22

In the murder case of Indian Air Force (IAF) corporal Vipan Shukla, his relatives today lashed out at the police and Air Force authorities for “delay” in acting on their complaint.Father and wife of the deceased, Triveni Shukla and Kumkum Shukla, respectively, claimed that they had lodged the missing complaint on February 9, but despite their repeated requests, no search was conducted at the staff quarters of the Bhisiana air station.They claimed that even the police did not register case earlier. It was registered on February 15 after the DGP instructed Bathinda SSP Swapan Sharma and further he instructed the SHO.They even wrote letters to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Home Minister, Defence Minister, Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court and Human Rights Commission on February 18.They alleged that when the police reached the Bhisiana air force station, they were not allowed to enter citing that it was their internal matter.They claimed that on February 21, the police along with the air force authorities recovered the body from the staff quarters of the air force station.Kumkum claimed that the accused couple use to visit their house daily without fail, but after February 8 when Vipan went missing they did not come to their place. She said she even told the police to raid the couple’s house, but they did not heed to her complaint.Corporal Vipan’s body was found chopped and packed in 16 packets from the refrigerator and cupboard in the house of sergeant Shailesh Kumar. The accused had killed Vipan on February 8, but chopped the body into pieces on February 19.The police today produced the accused couple —Shaliesh Kumar and Anuradha — in the court and took two days of police remand for further interrogation.The body also has been sent to Faridkot for postmortem.Bathinda police station SHO Ved Parkash said they were not allowed to enter the air force station, but they carried on the search operation outside the air force station. When they got permission to enter inside yesterday, they recovered the body.

Make killers feel same pain: Kin of IAF corporal murdered over illicit affair

Accused couple sent to two­day police remand, third accused on the run

BATHINDA: “I had sent my son to serve the nation, but never thought he would be murdered brutally like this,” said Triveni Shukla, 54, the inconsolable father of Indian Air Force corporal Vipin Shukla, 27. He was in Bathinda a day after Vipin, a ground staffer with the IAF at the Bhisiana station here, was found to have been murdered allegedly by his paramour, her husband and her brother, and his body cut up and stuffed into 16 polythene bags.

While police says it’s a case of an extra-marital affair gone wrong, the family allege “foul play”. Vipin, who has two kids with his wife, is a native of Beninagar village of Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh. He had joined the IAF in 2009 and was posted at Bhisiana station in May 2014.

He was missing since February 8, after which a search by police and the IAF led to the living quarters of accused Sulesh Kumar, an IAF sergeant, his wife Anuradha, and her brother Shashi Bhushan.

It is alleged that Vipin had got Anuradha pregnant, but was refusing to marry her. She, in turn, has said he was forcing her to continue with the affair despite her unwillingness. Police say that Anuradha hatched the conspiracy, and Sulesh called Vipin to their quarters on the pretext of help in packing some household articles on February 8 evening. That is when the murder was committed with an axe, and the body hacked with a meat cleaver for discreet disposal.

In the meantime, based on a complaint by his wife Kumkum, a case for kidnapping was registered against unknown persons at Nathana police station on February 15. Superintendent of police (SP) Gurmeet Singh said a team of the police and station officials were conducting a search on Tuesday when foul smell emanating from the quarters of Sulesh was observed.

“The killers must be hanged and be made to go through the same pain and torture that my son felt,” said Triveni, who along with other family members was at the Bathinda civil hospital for Vipin’s post-mortem. However, the doctors shifted the body to Government Medical College and Hospital at Faridkot.

Sulesh and Anuradha have already been arrested while Shashi is on the run.

TWO-DAY REMAND

Meanwhile, the Bathinda police got two-day remand of the two arrested accused, to recover the weapon used in the murder besides collecting other clues.

Deputy superintendent of police Kuldeep Singh Sohi said the police had sought seven-day custody.

“We are yet to recover the weapon used in crime, while teams have been dispatched to Uttar Pradesh to nab the third accused, Shashi Bhushan,” Sohi added.