MEERUT: Harinder, an accused in the Kavita Rani murder case, surrendered on Thursday before the police here.

Pleading innocence, Harinder told the Civil Lines Police that he had never met lecturer Kavita Rani though he had met her brother "once or twice", police said.

Harinder said he was not aware of the matter pertaining to the abduction and murder of the lecturer. However, he had known prime suspect Ravindra Pradhan for the past seven years.

On Wednesday, Triloki Singh, an associate of Pradhan and headman of Dhanera Kirat village in Bulandshahr district, was arrested in Delhi.

Kavita Rani, a temporary lecturer at Chaudhry Charan Singh University, went missing on October 22.