Brother-in-law of the deceased, Krishna Gopal, who has been doing the rounds of various authorities to get the case registered, revealed that Yadav was to appear in a few cases pending in the Allahabad High Court. Yadav had paid a visit to Gopal, who resides in Karolia of Badayun village, Uttar Pradesh, on January 28 and was scheduled to visit Badayun again on February 4.

The case was scheduled for February 6 in Allahabad. “When Yadav did not turn up, we called him up but did not receive a reply. We thought he might have gone out of town for some other case,” added Gopal.

On February 6, however, the family received news of Yadav’s murder.

“On February 5, the neighbours informed the local police about a foul odour coming from his house. The police found Yadav’s body behind the house. The body had already started decomposing. A copy of the postmortem report that we have acquired clearly states that he was murdered by strangling. The police assured us of a probe but have not registered a case yet,” added Gopal.

Gopal alleged that the lawyer might have been murdered by his own family over property.

“He was having a dispute with his family members over his property, which is roughly worth Rs 10 crore,” said Gopal. Incidentally, Yadav’s five-year-old daughter Poonam was found dead under mysterious circumstances 30 years earlier, said Gopal. His younger daughter, a second-year MBBS student also named Poonam, died in the same house nine years ago after developing breathing complications.

Gopal’s sister and Yadav’s wife Sudha also died five years ago. “Neighbours told us that Sudha had a fight with her sister-in law, who allegedly hit her on the head with a heavy object. She slipped from the stairs,” alleged Gopal.