IIM-L student held for fashion designer’s murder

CBI today arrested a student of IIM-Lucknow,who had gone to IIT-Kanpur earlier,for the murder of a Mumbai fashion designer who went missing in Kanpur in August 2008. Sources in CBI said the student,Rahul Verma,and the missing man,Adesh Bajpai,were in touch over a social networking site popular with gay people.

Bajpai was last seen in Kanpur with Verma,who was then a student at IIT,on August 10,2008. “We arrested Verma after collecting circumstantial evidence against him. Till now,there is no direct evidence. Bajpai’s call records show he was present on IIT-K campus before he disappeared. We suspect one more person could be involved,” a CBI officer said. CBI produced Verma before a special magistrate who gave them his custody for three days.

Investigators got confirmation last month that the DNA extracted from acid washed bones and a skull found in a gunny bag on the IIT campus on August 23,2008,matched with that of Bajpai’s parents. The 30-year-old had visited Kanpur on August 10,and was last seen by his cousin Vivek Trivedi who told the police that Bajpai had left with “a friend from IIT-K”.