Five months on, police yet to ascertain whether petro engineer was murdered

Priyam Shrivastav

It's been nearly five months that Priyam Shrivastav, who worked as a site-engineer in a petroleum company, died during his birthday celebrations at a Belapur hotel. But his family still awaits justice. Even after a month's investigation into the case, the Belapur cops are clueless whether Shrivastav was poisoned to death or he suffered a heart attack.

Nothing suspicious
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Crime Branch officer said, "Investigation is still underway. We haven't yet reached a conclusion. Details of Shrivastav's phone have been analysed, statements of the workers of the hotel where he met his friends for his birthday lunch have been recorded and even the CCTV footages of the restaurant have been scanned. However, nothing suspicious has been found about his friends. The Belapur cops had recorded the statements of his four friends when they registered the accidental death report, but we are yet to record any statement."

Questioning the probe being conducted by the Crime Branch, Shrivastav's father Vimal Kumar Shrivastav said, "I thought the Crime Branch's main focus is to detect cases as early as possible. But I don't know why they are taking so much of time. My wife is still in shock. Don't know how we'll get justice for our son. Whenever I call the police, they tell me that the investigation is on."

Originally from Banda in Uttar Pradesh, Shrivastav, who worked as a site engineer at Essar Petroleum Company in Belapur, used to live with four of his friends - Abhishek Sharma, Badri Yadav, Bappy Mukherjee and Mayank Choudhary - in a flat at Ulwe. A day after his birthday on February 14, Shrivastav went out for lunch with his friends at Rainforest Resto Bar in Belapur where he suddenly fell ill and died.

However, a forensic analysis of Priyam's viscera had revealed that he died due to petroleum hydrocarbon poisoning. The Belapur cops had filed a case of murder under section 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of IPC in May. Later, the investigation was handed over to the Crime Branch.

'We'll reach a conclusion soon'
When contacted, Tushar Doshi, deputy commissioner of police (crime), said, "We are following the investigation on a daily basis. We have questioned the driver of the cab in which he travelled on the day of the incident and also the waiters of the hotel, but nothing suspicious has been found. Also, we need to find out whether he was poisoned with petroleum hydrocarbon or he inhaled it while at work. The probe is on the right track and soon we'll arrive at a conclusion."

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