KANPUR: Five days after pharmaceutical trader Vineet Manocha was stabbed to death inside his Kanpur home, questions over who knew about the alleged murder plot have brought his son Subrat Manocha under scrutiny.The main focus of the investigation remains Subrat’s wife, Shalu Manocha, whom police allege helped plan the murder and enlisted two alleged contract killers, Vishal Gautam and Raj Kishore.Shalu‘s family, however, has rejected the allegations. Her elder brother Dheeraj Arora and sister Sonia Mehrotra told reporters on Thursday that it was difficult to believe she could have orchestrated the killing.Arora said Shalu was close to Vineet and regularly looked after his food and other daily needs. He also questioned why Subrat had remained silent and said the family had been unable to contact him since the murder.Police are now trying to establish whether Subrat knew about the alleged plan.“Subrat has neither been arrested nor made an accused in the case,” Commissioner of Police Raghubir Lal told PTI. He said his call detail records and other intelligence inputs were being examined.“If his involvement is established during the investigation, action will be taken against him,” Lal said.One of the questions investigators are trying to answer is how Shalu could allegedly communicate with Vishal while planning the murder without her husband becoming aware of it.According to police, Shalu arranged for Vishal and Raj Kishore to enter the apartment and hide in her bedroom before she left with Subrat for a party.The couple allegedly reached the lounge around 10.30pm and returned home around 3am, when they found Vineet’s body.Investigators are now examining videos purportedly showing Shalu dancing at the gathering to establish whether they were recorded on the night of the murder.“We are also examining communication between Shalu and Vishal. We have recovered data from their seized phones and are trying to retrieve deleted messages,” Lal said.The investigation into their communication has thrown up what police describe as an extended exchange between Shalu and Vishal.A senior police official said Vishal had initially been sending Shalu good morning and good night messages without receiving a response. About three months before the murder, police said, she began replying and gradually started engaging with him.According to the officer, Shalu complimented Vishal on his appearance, telling him he was smart. She also asked whether he was in a relationship and why he had not yet married.Police believe the conversations marked the beginning of the alleged murder plan. Investigators suspect Shalu intentionally manipulated Vishal into carrying out the killing.The digital trail has become a key part of the investigation. Police said 49 messages exchanged between Shalu and Vishal from May 1 until the day of the murder had been deleted. During the same period, the two allegedly exchanged 309 calls.DCP West SM Qasim Abidi said Vishal deleted his chat history with Shalu after the murder, but was unable to completely erase the WhatsApp call records.Shalu’s lawyer, Shivakant Dixit, has disputed the police characterisation of the gathering she attended on the night of the murder. He said it was a ‘regular kitty’ involving people associated with the pharmaceutical trade and not a “high-society party”.Vineet, 60, was found murdered inside his Kanpur flat on September 5. Police have since been investigating Shalu’s alleged role, the involvement of the two suspected contract killers.