UP cops’ sketch of ‘serial killer’ exact match of latest pic, down to his shirt | Meerut News – Times of India

A tweet by a Twitter user that went out pointing to the coincidence had by Saturday evening notched up over 10 lakh views.
Police defended their investigation. Bareilly SSP Anurag Arya, who led the operation, told TOI, “This was a comprehensive chase involving collaboration with villagers to identify the culprit. We received numerous leads, tracked over 180 suspects, and conducted many interrogations. We collected pictures of suspects while monitoring their movements and set them aside after ruling out their involvement, eventually zeroing in on three persons.”
The police, however, going by their account, seem to have released the sketches of the suspects though they also had real photographs of the three men with them.
Arya added as explanation: “The sketches of all three were shown to hundreds of villagers, and most of them pointed to the sketch of a man called Kuldeep…” He revealed that the photograph used to create the sketch of Kuldeep was indeed taken when the suspects were called in for questioning at the police station. “The purpose of releasing the sketches was to validate the feedback from our tracking and interrogation teams with input from the locals”.
Fuelling the controversy is a growing theory that the Uttar Pradesh police might have arrested 35-year-old Kuldeep Gangwar well before they released the sketch.
This theory has gained significant traction online, with social media users noting that the uncanny similarities between the sketch and Gangwar’s photo raise serious questions about the methods used to go ahead with probe in the case that has shaken Bareilly for over a year now.
Many on social media asked whether the right man has been caught for the chilling murders.
Arya contested the claim. “There is a clear-cut media policy of the UP Police issued in the form of SOPs in Oct 2023 that the accused’s face must not be revealed in front of the media before the completion of the identification process or even after the arrest. And this is why we could not have released the real pictures of the suspects.”
The arrest has been contested by Kuldeep’s brother, Raj Kumar, who has staunchly defended his sibling. “He’s a simple soul, incapable of such heinous crimes. His mental faculties aren’t sound,” Raj said. “Yes, he would occasionally wander off into the fields, but committing murders? Impossible. We demand an impartial inquiry. An innocent man must not be wrongfully accused.”
Meanwhile, in Kuldeep’s village, Bakarganj, residents have dismissed the police’s claims. “There has never been a single incident of violence or harassment by him in or around the village. We’ve known him for years. He was a man of unsound mind and often roamed around aimlessly, not returning home for months at a time. But the police know better what evidence they have found against Kuldeep,” former village head Mohd Rashid said.
Villagers have also countered police claims that he was a drug addict. Lochan Singh, another villager, said, “He would readily accept a beedi from locals, but drinking or addiction is out of the question as he never had any money. He used to roam about and people would feed him out of compassion.”