LUCKNOW: The owner of a snack-manufacturing company and three of his associates abducted his neighbor's son and demanded Rs 1 crore ransom to make up for the losses suffered in business, police said.
Later, in their terror, the four killed the victim, Vishal Gautam, who was 18 years old. In Sitapur, they dumped his body in the Gomti River.
The four suspects have been identified as Dheeraj Maurya, Rajesh Gautam, Mukesh Rawat, and Ashish Rawat, all of whom are in their forties, said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rahul Raj. In the course of questioning, the four admitted to the crime.
The DCP reported that teams from the SDRF have been sent to investigate the body. The official claims that Maurya resides in Dubbagga and runs a plant that produces snacks in Maal. He lives close to Vishal Gautam, the victim, whose family owns a real estate company.
The other 3 accused also have small business units.
DCP Raj said that Vishal, a resident of Dubagga, went missing on the night of September 25. His sister, Sandhya, registered a case with the police the very next day in which she mentioned that Vishal had gone to Maal before his disappearance.
A team was deployed to the spot mentioned by Sandhya and it found Vishal's bike parked outside Maurya's factory. Meanwhile, the family got the ransom call from Vishal's phone demanding one crore rupees. The caller threatened the family with dire consequences if the police were informed.
A few days later, the kidnappers used WhatsApp to make another ransom call, and during their talk with the family, they decided to cut the demanded ransom to Rs 50 lakh.
This time, police tracked the criminals using electronic monitoring, and they were apprehended at Maurya's factory, said DCP.
"Maurya admitted that his factory was about to close owing to significant losses. He attempted to obtain a bank loan to reopen the factory but was unable because of his bad credit rating. In an effort to salvage his enterprise, he then devised a scheme to kidnap Vishal, whose family owns property valued in the millions of rupees, Raj added. He added that the suspects admitted to injecting Vishal with poison first, then strangling him to death.
Man arrested for threatening to blow up UP CM's function
Fugitive real estate Co director from Andhra Pradesh arrested in cheating case
Top 5 Notorious Serial Killers of all time