Inspired by an episode of a television show, two accused including a juvenile got the idea to commit a perfect crime of kidnapping to make “quick money”. Ankit Gupta, a 17-year-old school boy, was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by these two accused within hours of being kidnapped on February 11. The duo accused were arrested on Monday.
“Out of the 2,000 calls, we zeroed in on three calls which were made by the culprits. It took us more than a month to trace the SIM cards from which the calls were made as these SIMs as well as the mobile phones were issued on fake addresses,” said A K Singla, DCP (North-east).
After almost two months of the kidnapping and murder of Ankit Gupta, North-east district police finally traced the culprits. “Zeeshan Rai (19), a driver, was the executioner of the plan while the juvenile who was acquainted with Ankit since they studied in the same school jotted down the plan,” said a senior investigating officer privy to the investigation.
“It was a pre planned crime. The accused had watched an episode of a television show six months back and were convinced that if they follow what was shown in that kidnapping episode step by step, they will be able to make lots of money,” said the officer.
“On February 11, the juvenile called Ankit for a small get together. They drove in a Wagon R car and picked up Zeeshan from where they all headed to Zeeshan’s relative’s flat in Maujpur. They all drank beer and a quarter of whiskey. Intoxicated, the accused then choked Ankit and stuffed his body in a jute bag. They then took the body in the juvenile’s Alto car and dumped it near Dadri,” said Singla.
“They killed Ankit fearing that he will identify them if he is sent back safely. After killing Ankit, they made several ransom calls to Ankit’s father but when Gupta showed up at the decided locations, the duo said that they were unable to face Gupta out of guilt,” said the officer.
Talking about how the case was solved, the officer said: “Initially we focussed solely on technical intelligence. During the course of investigation, we unearthed that within 40 days, he had made 83 new friends. Since he was very popular in his school, we talked to his friends.”
“It was during the investigation that we got to know that the location of the juvenile and Zeeshan was near to the place where Ankit’s phone was last located. When they were questioned, both the culprits confessed that they committed the crime to make quick money. There was no enmity between them and Ankit,” said the officer.
“Since Ankit had access to latest gadgets and even told one of his friends that he will be getting a Duke after final term exams, the accused thought of kidnapping Ankit as the latter’s father will be willing to pay any amount,” added the officer.