Friends kidnap Agra businessman's son, kill him and dispose of body as that of Covid victim

The only son of a businessman was kidnapped and murdered by his 'friends'; the accused donned PPE kits and disposed of the victim's body at the crematorium while claiming that the body was that of a Covid victim.

In a shocking incident in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, the only son of a cold storage owner was murdered by his "friends" over a ransom demand for Rs 2 crore. What more brutal is that the accused killed the boy inside the car, put his body in a bag and burnt it at the crematorium wearing PPE kits claiming that he had died of Coronavirus. The police have arrested five people in the case.

Sachin, aged 25, was kidnapped eight days ago while he was out for an evening walk.

When Sachin did not return home till late, his father, Suresh Chauhan, lodged a police complaint.

Meanwhile, the family received a ransom call for Rs 2 crore. Along with the police, the STF joined the case investigation.

STF in-charge Hukum Singh said that Happy Khanna, a resident of Kamalanagar, was caught in connection with the crime on Sunday night. When questioned, he confessed to the crime. 

Happy allegedly confessed that he, along with three other suspects identified as Sumit Aswani, Manoj Bansal and Rinku, had kidnapped Sachin in Rinku's car from near his house. 

Sachin knew them, so he did not resist. He was strangled to death in the car itself.

After the murder, the accused took advantage of Coronavirus to dispose of the body. They packed the body in a kit bag wearing a PPE kit and went to the Balkeshwar crematorium and got the dead body cremated. They lied that the body was that of a Covid patient named Ravi Verma. 

Besides owning cold storage at Barhan, Sachin's father was also a government contractor of the Zilla Panchayat. 

Police said that Harsh Chauhan, a resident of Dayalbagh, used to do contract work in partnership with Sachin and his father, Suresh Chauhan. He had incurred heavy losses during the pandemic. Sachin's contractor friend Sumit Aswani owed the former Rs 40 lakh and could not return it despite repeated reminders.

The police said that Harsh got Sumit into the conspiracy and promised that after the kidnapping, he would mediate and get a ransom of Rs 2 crores.  Out of this, Harsh was to get Rs 1 crore while the other crore rupees would be with Sumit.

After this, Sumit and his associates Rinku, Manoj and Happy, allegedly carried out the crime.

Sachin's father said he was unaware of the transaction. The police are investigating. 

"I will definitely get those punished who killed my only son," he said.