Lucknow: A first-year BBA student invited who was invited to Amroha on Feb 26 for a party was murdered by his friends and buried in a farm, allegedly after a brawl that began when the victim rebuked them, saying: “Kab tak mere paison se sharaab peete rahoge, kuchh kar lo life mein (how long will you drink with my money. Do something in life)”.
After killing Yash Mittal, the group of five youths tried to make it look like a kidnapping by sending his family a ransom demand.
Police tracked them down using call surveillance after zeroing in on Rachit Nagar, an Amroha resident who had picked Yash up from his university campus in Greater Noida on Feb 26. On Wednesday evening, three of the five accused were arrested.
DCP (Greater Noida) Saad Miya Khan said Yash’s father Pradeep Mittal filed a complaint on Feb 27 after the hostel warden informed him that the 20-year-old hadn’t returned to his room the previous night. “Yash’s father received a text message from the boy’s mobile phone on Feb 27 morning. The text, which he believed was from Yash, said he had been abducted and his captors were asking for Rs 6 crore for his release,” the officer said.
Police started electronic surveillance and filed a case on charges of kidnapping for ransom under IPC Section 365A at Dadri police station. “On reviewing footage from CCTV cameras installed on the university campus, it was found that the student left safely in a car around 6.30pm on Tuesday while talking to someone on the phone,” the DCP said.
Police discovered Yash had been murdered after tracking Rachit (22) down in Amroha on Feb 28 morning. “Rachit claimed they were headed to a party at his farm in Gajraula. He also gave us the names of four more youths — Shivam Singh, Sumit Singh, Sushant Verma and Shubham Chaudhary. Rachit claimed they were all residents of Gajraula and knew Yash since Nov last year,” Khan said.
Rachit told interrogators that the five of them and Yash were drinking at his farm when the argument began. “He claimed Yash’s comment provoked the others and they strangled him. Later, the youths buried him in the field,” the officer said.
Yash’s body was exhumed from a six-foot-deep pit at the farm and sent for autopsy. Police said three of the other suspects — Shivam, Sumit and Sushant — were arrested in Greater Noida on Feb 28 evening following a shootout. Shubham is on the run.
“We have lodged two FIRs against the accused. One is on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The other case was filed after the gunfight on charges of attempt to murder and under the Arms Act,” additional DCP Ashok Kumar said.
Yash’s family is from the same village in Amroha. Investigators said that except for Yash, whose father has an electronics business, the other youths come from humble backgrounds. Most of the boys were his seniors from school.
Rachit wanted to join UP Police and was taking online coaching, Shivam (23) was working at the clinic of his mother — a BAMS doctor — after clearing Class XII in 2018 and Sushant (24) is a BA final-year student at a college in Amroha, police said. Sumit (24) is a daily wage worker. He cleared Class 12 in 2014. Police said they believed Sumit was the one who strangled Yash, which makes him the main suspect in the case.
