The Hindu : New Delhi News : Tutor, friend held in student’s murder case

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Sunday, May 24, 2009
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New Delhi

Tutor, friend held in student’s murder case

Staff Reporter

Police had announced a cash reward of Rs.50,000 for providing information leading to the arrest of accused

Seventeen-year-old Chirag was hit on his head with a brick and strangulated to death
The skull now recovered is being scientifically matched with the body parts found

NEW DELHI: A 27-year-old private tutor and his friend have been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police in connection with the sensational kidnapping and murder of a teenaged boy in Keshavpuram here in the Capital last year. The police had announced a cash reward of Rs.50,000 for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of the accused in the case.

Seventeen-year-old Chirag, a Class XII student of DAV Public School in Shalimar Bagh, was hit on his head with a brick several times and strangulated to death a day after he was kidnapped from near Parewala Mandir on August 17 last year. The duo allegedly cut the body into pieces, stuffed it into poly-bags and disposed it of in a forest near the Shakurpur railway level crossing. The young victim’s head was stuffed into a separate poly-bag and dumped inside a drain in East Punjabi Bagh.

The skull now recovered at the instance of the accused is being scientifically matched with the body parts found earlier in the Punjabi Bagh police station area.

Prime accused Gaurav met Chirag for the first time in December 2007, when he had gone to give tuition to one of his friends. Gaurav later learnt that Chirag was the only son of Suresh Khandewal, who was engaged in the handicrafts business, and the family was very well-off. Sensing an opportunity to make easy money, Gaurav along with his friend Mahender Giri (27) hatched a plan to kidnap Chirag and demand ransom.

As per their plan, Mahender, an office attendant in Dwarka, joined a coaching centre in Tri Nagar where Chirag was enrolled. He introduced himself as Ajay and befriended Chirag. He left the coaching mid-way, but continued to be in touch with Chirag and once told him that he could arrange the Board papers for him. Initially Chirag rejected the idea, but eventually agreed.

On August 17, Mahender asked Chirag to meet him at Parewala Mandir on the pretext of arranging the papers and took him to Gaurav’s residence in Shakurpur. The two allegedly tied up Chirag with a bedsheet and put a tape on his mouth.

When Chirag did not return home in the evening, his mother rang him up on his mobile phone around 6 p.m. and the boy cried for help. The boy called up his father a few minutes later and told him that he had been kidnapped and was being taken to an unknown destination. One of the accused called up Chirag’s father later in the evening and demanded Rs.50 lakh as ransom for safe release of his son. He warned the businessman not to inform the police or the media.

The family reported the matter to the police and a kidnapping case was registered at the Keshavpuram police station. The kidnappers continued to ring up the family from different places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh over the next few days asking them to come to different places with the ransom money. But the kidnappers did not turn up. The family received the last ransom call on August 21.

The breakthrough came with the arrest of Gaurav on May 22. The mobile phone of the murdered child has allegedly been recovered from his possession. Mahender was later arrested in Dwarka at his instance. According to the police, Gaurav and Mahender came to know each other while they were studying in Arya Bal Grah, a charitable trust for orphanage and children of weaker sections of society in Darya Ganj. Gaurav, who was ill-treated by his step-mother, had a troubled childhood, the police said. He is presently pursuing B.Tech at the Aeronautical Society of India in Delhi.