Two men abduct, kill friend in Delhi; one arrested

Two men allegedly kidnapped and murdered a friend with the intention of obtaining a Rs two lakh ransom from his family in the Karawal Nagar area of northeast Delhi, police said.

According to police, the incident occurred on September 19 when the victim, Nitin (22), was allegedly stabbed by the two accused.

They said that the next morning, they demanded a ransom from Nitin’s family before fleeing when they learned that the police were investigating the matter.

One of the accused, Sachin Kumar Sharma (24), was apprehended in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, while the other, Arun, remains at large. Both Sachin and Nitin were residents of Johripur in Karawal Nagar, New Delhi. Nitin worked at a cloth store in Shahdara, said the police.

Nitin’s sister, Geeta Chaudhary, reported that on September 19, Nitin left home around 5.30 pm. At 10.23 am the following day, she received a message stating that her brother had been kidnapped and would only be released upon the payment of Rs 2 lakh, they said.

According to police they registered a case of kidnapping for ransom and initiated an investigation. They tracked the suspicious movements of two individuals through the victim’s call records but were unable to locate them.

Eventually, Sachin was located in Ganganagar, Rajasthan, through technical surveillance, and he was arrested. Sachin, a salesman in a utensils shop in Karawal Nagar, had known Nitin since 2018 and was facing financial difficulties, especially after the birth of his two-month-old daughter. Sachin had met Arun, the co-accused, around two years ago.

Approximately 15 days prior to the incident, Sachin and Arun allegedly devised a plan to kidnap Nitin and demand a Rs 2 lakh ransom from his family.

On the evening of September 19, Sachin invited Nitin for drinks, and Arun was also present. Since they were close friends, Nitin did not suspect anything. They lured Nitin to a lonely stretch near the railway tracks, overpowered him, and allegedly stabbed him to death. They concealed his body in the bushes near the railway tracks and took Nitin’s mobile phone.

The following day, around 10.30 am, the accused used Nitin’s phone to make the ransom demand from his sister, calling from Loni, Ghaziabad. However, upon realising that the police were investigating the case, they decided to leave Delhi. Sachin took his wife and daughter to a friend’s place in Ganganagar.

Efforts are ongoing to apprehend Arun, and Nitin’s body was discovered near the railway station in Behta Hazipur. The post-mortem is scheduled for Tuesday, and the investigation is ongoing, said police. (With inputs from PTI)