UP cops launch probe into death of Thai woman in Lucknow

SP spokesperson alleged she was brought to Lucknow by a BJP MP’s son

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS CORRESPONDENT 1  The Lucknow police are probing the death of a 41-year-old Thai national in Lucknow. The woman died of COVID-19 in a city hospital on April 3, after falling ill on April 30.

Samajwadi Party national spokesperson IP Singh has demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter alleging that the woman had been called to Lucknow by the son of BJP MP Sanjay Seth.

Terming the social media posts that claim the involvement of his son in the matter “fake and malicious”, Seth wrote to the Commissioner of Police, UP to conduct a strict and thorough investigation by the IT cell and the cyber cell to ascertain the origin of the posts and their veracity.

“I request to investigate about the “deceased girl”, her credentials, passport number, mobile number; her call details, stay details in Lucknow and any other place in India including her meetings with persons are the important questions to be investigated,” Seth wrote in his letter.

Seth is a builder who was originally with the Samajwadi Party. He was extremely close to former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Singh, who posted a photo of Seth with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Twitter account, said that if the latter was interested in an impartial inquiry, he should not just ask the UP police to investigate but be open to a CBI inquiry.

No FIR has been registered in the case.

Amitabh Thakur, the IPS officer recently handed over a voluntary retirement by the government has meanwhile sought an FIR in the matter. Thakur, with his RTI activist wife Nutan, has written to the Police Commissioner that the inquiry being conducted currently is “improper and illegal”.

The couple has demanded that a formal report be registered in the case as the matter constitutes offences under several acts. These include 

section 5 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956section 109 (Criminal abetment), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 177 (false information to Public servant), 193 (False evidence), 201 (tampering with evidence), 203 (false information) and 465, 466 (forging public records).

In his letter, Seth has alleged that those who have been circulating “fake” social media posts that are harmful to his and his family’s “social reputation” are “operating as gang…to cause unrest in the society and the nation…for their ulterior motives”.

The deceased was cremated by the Lucknow police under the watch of one Salman Khan- her acquaintance. It was live streamed for her family members in Thailand.

The role of Khan, for his possible role in bringing the woman over is being investigated as is the CCTV footage of the hotel in which she stayed.