Two men kidnap, kill friend in northeast Delhi, 1 arrested

Two men allegedly kidnapped and killed a friend in a bid to get Rs two lakh ransom money from his family in northeast Delhi's Karawal Nagar area, police said on Tuesday.

The two accused allegedly stabbed Nitin (22) on September 19 and demanded ransom from his family the next morning, they said. They fled after finding out that police were investigating the case, police added.

Sachin Kumar Sharma (24), one of the accused in the case, was arrested from Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar, police said. Arun, the other accused is yet to be traced, police said.

Sachin and Nitin are both residents of Johripur in Karawal Nagar in New Delhi. The victim worked in a cloth store in Shahdara, police said.

Geeta Chaudhary, the victim’s sister, said in her complaint to the police that on September 19, Nitin left home around 5.30 pm.

Around 10.23 am the next day, she received a message saying her brother had been kidnapped and would be released only after they paid Rs 2 lakh, as per the complaint.

A case of kidnapping for ransom was registered immediately and investigation was taken up, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said.

Police checked the victim's call details record and found the movement of two persons suspicious but could not trace them.

Police located Sachin, one of the accused, in Ganganagar in Rajasthan after technical surveillance. A team went there and nabbed him, police said.

Sachin, who works as a salesman in a utensils shop in Karawal Nagar, knew Nitin since 2018. He has a wife and a two-month-old daughter, they said.

After his daughter’s birth, he had been facing a lot of financial difficulty, the DCP said. Sachin met Arun, the co-accused, around two years ago.

Around 15 days back, Sachin and Arun hatched a plan to kidnap Nitin and demand Rs 2 lakh as ransom from his family, Tirkey said.

On September 19, Sachin invited Nitin for drinks in the evening. Arun, who was also present there and Sachin were carrying knives. They were close friends so Nitin did not suspect anything, police said.

Nitin reached Johripur main road around 6.15 pm, where Sachin and Arun were waiting for him. All three of them reached the railway station, Behta Hazipur, Ghaziabad, police said.

They had liquor near the railway tracks and around 9 pm, Sachin asked that they should return home. While they were walking back in the dark, on a lonely stretch near the railway tracks, both Sachin and Arun overpowered Nitin and allegedly stabbed him to death, the DCP said.

They allegedly hid his body in the bushes near the railway track and returned home with Nitin’s mobile phone, Tirkey said.

Around 10.30 am next day, the duo made the ransom demand from Nitin’s sister using his phone from Loni, Ghaziabad, police said.

However, when the accused realised that police were investigating the case, they decided to leave Delhi, the DCP said.

Sachin took his wife and daughter and went to his wife’s friend’s place in Ganganagar, Tirkey said. The DCP added that efforts are being made to arrest Arun.

Police said Nitin’s body was recovered from the bushes near railway station in Behta Hazipur. Sachin took the police to the spot where they stabbed Nitin to death, they said.

The post-mortem will be conducted on Tuesday and further investigation in the case is underway, they added.