One arrested for murder and abduction of engineering student in Birbhum

KOLKATA: An engineering student of Ilambazar in Birbhum was abducted and murdered by his friend for ransom on Saturday.

The accused was held by the local police on Sunday and he confessed to the crime.

According to sources, Syed Salauddin (19), a student of a Durgapur-based engineering institute, lived at Ahmedpur in Khoyrasol of Birbhum. His father is a businessman and owns a shop in Ilambazar. On Saturday afternoon, Salauddin left home and did not return.

At night, his father received a call from an unknown person, who told him that Salauddin had been abducted. The caller demanded Rs 30 lakh as ransom to release the youth.

Hearing this, Salauddin's father told the caller that he was arranging the money and would hand-over the same. Meanwhile, Salauddin's family got in touch with the police.

Immediately cops started tracking the mobile number's location details. While doing so, police found the location of Salauddin and the number from which his father had received the call, were same. The phone number belonged to a youth, Sheikh Salman.

A few hours later police picked up Salman from Asansol by tracking his mobile phone's tower location. Meanwhile, Salauddin's mobile phone was detected at Choupaharia forest in Ilambazar.

Immediately, a police team along with Forest department staff started a search operation and found the body of Salauddin with his throat slit.

During interrogation, Salman reportedly told the cops that he had a debt worth a huge amount.

Salman had failed to repay the money. For this purpose, he had asked Salauddin for money which the deceased youth denied. Later, he abducted Salauddin and demanded ransom. Police are yet to verify his statement. However, it is being suspected that Salauddin has been killed to hide the accused's identity.

The accused is being interrogated to find out if any other motive is there behind the murder.