A tragic incident unfolded in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, where a 30-year-old delivery agent, Bharat Prajapati, was allegedly murdered by a customer over a cash payment dispute related to two smartphones. The police reported that the crime took place on September 23.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashank Singh, the victim was lured to the home of Gajanan, the main accused, alongside his accomplice, Akash, to deliver two smartphones—a Google Pixel and a Vivo—worth approximately Rs 1 lakh. The order was placed by another suspect, Himanshu Kanaujia, through Flipkart, who had selected the cash-on-delivery payment option.
Prajapati’s family raised an alarm on September 25 when he failed to return home. Following the report, authorities initiated an investigation and were able to trace Gajanan’s phone number through Prajapati’s call records.
During the investigation, Akash, Gajanan’s associate, confessed to the police, revealing that the pair had conspired to rob Prajapati of the expensive devices. After luring him to Kanaujia’s residence, they assaulted him and subsequently strangled him. The suspects then concealed Prajapati’s body in a sack and disposed of it in the Indira Canal.
Currently, the police are conducting a search operation in collaboration with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to recover the body.
While Kanaujia and Akash have been apprehended, Gajanan is still at large, prompting a manhunt for his arrest.
This incident is part of a worrying trend, as delivery workers have been targeted in previous years. In 2021, a food delivery worker was murdered during a robbery attempt in Bengaluru, and in 2022, another delivery agent was fatally stabbed in Noida over a payment issue.
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