Police teams have been dispatched to Deoria and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh in search of an absconding television script writer at whose rented accommodation in Mandawali here the body of a 21-year-old aspiring model-cum-actor was found stuffed inside a plastic bag on Saturday. The victim had apparently been kidnapped for a ransom.
The police suspect the role of one Shanti Verma in whose rented house Sumit Tiwari’s body was found. Enquiries by the police revealed that he had written scripts for television serials and some films.
Sumit, a resident of Karawal Nagar who had done a dual course in modelling and acting from a Noida institute, went missing under mysterious circumstances three days ago. His father then received a ransom call demanding Rs.2 lakh for Sumit’s release.
Through technical surveillance, the police zeroed in on a house at Mandawali which was locked from outside. They broke open the door and found there Sumit’s body stuffed inside a plastic bag. Circumstantial evidence suggested that he had been strangled.
Sumit’s father disclosed that two days ago his son had told him about a crew shooting a film near Akshardham Temple. Sumit told his father that a person named Rakesh had promised to get a role for him in the film. For two consecutive days, Sumit left home in the morning apparently to meet the contact person and returned in the evening.
On Thursday too, he left home as usual for the shooting venue and around 5 p.m. called up his father to inform him that he was on his way back.
However, three hours later, Sumit’s father received the ransom call from his mobile phone number stating that he had been kidnapped.
