'Friends' kill 20-year-old student in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, send ransom messages to 'mislead' police

A 20-year-old student studying in Greater Noida, in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was allegedly strangled to death by four friends.

Local police officials said that the incident happened after an argument broke out. The friends allegedly buried his body 6 ft deep inside a farmland in Amroha.

Police said that the accused killed the student on February 27 but to mislead the police and his family, they sent ransom messages on February 28.

Officials said that three accused were engaged in a gunfight with the police in Greater Noida on Wednesday evening and the accused also suffered gunshot injuries on their legs. They were arrested by the police.

The fourth accused, Shubham Chaudhary, is at large.

The victim, who has been identified as Yash Mittal, and the accused belonged to the Gajraula area in Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh, where the murder took place on Tuesday night.

The student belonged to a business family and was enrolled for a Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) degree at a private university in Greater Noida.

As quoted by the news agency PTI, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Saad Miya Khan said that when Yash did not return to the university hostel after leaving the premises on Monday, an FIR was lodged at the local Dadri police station and a probe was launched.

Khan added, "On February 27, the police received information that Bennett University student Yash Mittal had not returned to the hostel since February 26. Immediately, police teams were formed to investigate this case. When CCTV footage was reviewed, it was found that he left the university campus safely in a car while talking to someone on the phone."

The officer said that call data records were also checked as part of the probe. The call details led the police to some suspects, including his friend Rachit Nagar who told the police about a party in Gajraula to which Mittal was invited by his friends.

Watch:Row erupts after Tamil Nadu Minister's Chinese flag on Indian rocket ad. Here's how PM Modi reacted

"During the probe, Rachit Nagar told police that he, Yash Mittal, Shivam Singh, Shubham Singh, Sushant Verma and Shubham Chaudhary, who lived in Gajraula (Amroha), are friends with each other since November 2023," the DCP said.

"On February 26, they had called Yash Mittal for the party in Gajraula. He went there during which an argument broke out between him and others after which he was killed and his body was buried inside a farmland in Gajraula. We recovered the body from the farmland on Wednesday," Khan said.

Reports said that the victim's family is in the electronics business and he apparently told his friends that they were "surviving and having parties on his money", which became the reason for the conflict.

The police received information that the accused were in Greater Noida's Dadri area on Wednesday evening and during a combing operation, a gunfight broke out during which the accused suffered bullet injuries.

(With inputs from agencies)