Five persons were arrested on Thursday for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a 17-year-old in north-east Delhi on Tuesday and dumping his body in a canal in Muradnagar in Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Ghaziabad, the police said.
Stating that one of the arrested men is the victim’s cousin, they said the sixth accused is absconding.
Body not found
A joint team of UP and Delhi Police are yet to trace Sahil Mehra’s body.
The police said the kidnappers demanded ₹1 crore from the victim’s father on Wednesday, despite having killed him hours earlier.
Accused Pankaj alias Babbal, who is Sahil’s cousin, wanted to build a house with the ransom money. Pankaj lived in Sahil’s house.
The four others have been identified as Mursaleem alias Salim, Shoaib, Salman and Naseemuddin alias Chotu.
The police said the incident took place around 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday in north-east Delhi’s Nand Nagri. The victim’s family informed the police that Sahil had gone to a nearby park to play but had failed to return home.
“His father received a ransom call on his mobile phone. The kidnappers demanded ₹1 crore for Sahil’s release. The kidnappers were aware that the family had recently made a huge profit in business,” said an officer privy to the investigation.
The police registered a case of kidnapping and various teams were formed to trace the victim. Officers from the Crime Branch were also roped in. With the help of technical surveillance and local intelligence, the officers zeroed in on Pankaj and arrested him.
Code words
Pankaj told the investigators that he took Sahil along with him to an ATM in G.T.B. Nagar. The other accused also reached the spot and pretended to bump into Pankaj.
Pankaj made an excuse and sent Sahil with his friends, saying that he would join them later. They had planned to use code words to communicate. Code word ‘P’ meant the police were informed and ‘M’ meant Pankaj wanted Sahil dead.
The accused told the police that they had killed the boy by giving him a drink laced with poison. Sahil fell unconscious, following which they dumped his body in the canal.
The accused left the spot only after ensuring that he was dead.
“Pankaj knew his uncle was rich. He wanted to build a house but needed money to do that. Since he was living in the same house as Sahil, he came to know when his uncle informed the PCR.
He typed a ‘P’ and sent the message to his accomplices to warn them that the police had been informed. When he thought he would get into trouble, he sent an ‘M’ in a message, indicating that he wanted them to kill Sahil,” the officer said.
