UP: Security guard's body found in Hathras cold storage

Hathras: The body of a man was found hanging from a pillar inside a second-floor chamber of a cold storage facility where he was working as a night guard in Uttar Pradesh's Sahpau, police said on Saturday.

While police have initially termed it a case of suicide, family members have alleged that he was murdered on Friday and his body was made to appear as suicide.

The deceased, identified as Rajkumar, a resident of Garhi Khanjama village in the Sahpau police jurisdiction, had been working as a watchman at Satyam Cold Storage located at Sultanpur Tiraha on Sadabad-Jalesar Road. He was missing since Friday morning, prompting his family to alert the police.

Following the complaint, police personnel, the cold storage management, and Rajkumar's relatives searched the ground floor chambers of the facility late Friday night, but found no trace of him.

Later in the night, they went to one of the upper floor chambers and found Rajkumar's body hanging by a "gamchha" (a traditional cloth scarf) tied around a pillar. Police arrived at the scene and called in a forensic team and a dog squad to assist in the investigation, they said.

As officers brought the body down, chaos broke out at the site. The situation quickly escalated, and police reinforcements from neighbouring jurisdictions had to be called in to manage the crowd.

Family members, especially women, protested vehemently, blocking the ambulance and banging their heads against its windows in grief. They claimed Rajkumar was murdered and that his body was deliberately hanged to disguise the crime as a suicide.

"They killed him and then hanged his body to make it look like he ended his life," alleged one of the relatives at the site, accusing the cold storage owner and employees of being involved.

After much persuasion from police, the protesting women eventually moved away from the ambulance, and the body was taken for postmortem examination.

Speaking to reporters, Additional Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Singh said, "Preliminary information suggests it may be a case of suicide that took place inside the cold storage at night. However, the family has alleged murder and has submitted a written complaint." "The body has been sent for post-mortem, and we will proceed with further action based on the findings of the report," he said.

Police said that all angles are being investigated and that no possibility is being ruled out at this stage.