Anupam Ujjwal Tiru
Days after a young engineer from Jharkhand was found dead at an oil refinery in Haryana, his family members have claimed he was murdered because he tried to blow the lid off an oil mafia.
Anupam Ujjwal Tiru, 30, a chemical engineer at an IndianOil refinery in Panipat district, was on Wednesday found floating in its chemical disposal pond, around 2 km from his office premises.
He was on night duty on May 30, and went missing around midnight. The body was found 24 hours later, the police said.
The police suspect Anupam Tiru might have committed suicide or drowned accidentally. But his family said he was murdered because he had discovered anomalies in the dispatch of oil and manipulation of accounts, and had also lodged a complaint against those involved.
“Rope marks have been found around his neck,“ said Anupam Tiru's mother Bina Tiru, a professor at the Ranchi Women's College. “Moreover, his body was found in a chemical pond. No one usually ventures there.“ Anupam Tiru's father Jaiwant Tiru, a former additional district judge, said he had warned his son against reporting the matter. “I was trying to warn him of the mafia.”
The police said the accusation could be taken up with the company only when the cause of death was established.
“Preliminary reports say no injury mark was found on any part of the body, but we are waiting for the medical report before proceeding further,“ said Pankaj Nain, superintendent of police, Panipat. “No one from the deceased's family has lodged a formal complaint of suspected foul play.”
The family has also alleged some IndianOil officials are trying to cover up the evidence.
But the company said it is not aware how Anupam Tiru died.
“The police have not found any clues after the postmortem. I was not here when this happened,” said Rajkumar Ghosh, executive director of IndianOil, Panipat.
The Jharkhand government has urged the Haryana government to probe the incident.
“We have sought a report from the Haryana government,” deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahato said.
