The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday suspended four police personnel, including an additional superintendent of police, for laxity in the investigation into the kidnapping and murder of a 28-year-old lab technician in Kanpur, PTI reported. The police said the man was killed by the kidnappers last month. However, Sanjeet Yadav’s body has not been recovered yet.

Last week, Yadav’s family had alleged that the police failed to stop his kidnappers from escaping with Rs 30 lakh ransom. According to them, the money was given on July 13 and the accused managed to escape despite heavy police presence, NDTV reported.

Circle Officer Vikas Pandey rejected the allegations and the Adityanath government said Additional Director General BP Jogdand will investigate whether ransom was paid by the family or not.

Those suspended include Additional Superintendent of Police (South) Aparna Gupta, Circle Officer Manoj Kumar Gupta, Station House Officer Barra Ranjit Rai and in-charge of the outpost Rajesh Kumar.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Kanpur) Dinesh Kumar Prabhu said they have detained several key suspects in the case and two of them have confessed to the crime. He added that they initially tried to mislead the police, but later disclosed that they kidnapped Yadav and killed him.

The accused had earlier worked with Yadav in another pathology lab and disposed off his body in the Pandu river, Prabhu said. “Several police teams, including crime branch and surveillance, have been directed to find the victim’s body and arrest all those involved in the crime,” he added.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the law and order in Uttar Pradesh has completely collapsed. “After Vikram Joshi, now abducted Sanjeet Yadav in Kanpur has been killed,” she tweeted. “The police got the money paid to the kidnappers and he was killed as well. A new ‘gundaraj’ has come into being. In this jungle raj, law and order has surrendered before the goons.”

Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav questioned who was helping the criminals. “It seems morality of the BJP government has also been kidnapped,” he added.