Three people, including a tutor and her fiance, were arrested on Tuesday, October 31, for strangling a Class X student after abducting him, while he was on the way to his coaching institute, located in Kanpur's Swaroop Nagar area. The deceased has been identified as Khushagra Kanodia, a resident of Rambagh, which falls under Raipurwa police station.
Later, the teacher's fiance, Prabhat Shukla, sent a ransom letter to the victim's family to make it look like a kidnapping. However, a preliminary investigation has revealed that the 17-year-old boy was murdered before the letter was delivered, as per a report by PTI.
During the investigation, it was revealed that in a bid to give a communal colour to the crime, Shukla wrote a religious slogan in the letter, apart from demanding a ransom of Rs 30 lakh for the safe release of the victim. Sharing details of the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Pramod Kumar said that the victim's family approached the Raipurwa police station on Monday evening, October 30, and handed over the ransom letter.
The police gathered the CCTV footage, which showed the boy willingly following Shukla from Swaroop Nagar to the accused's home in Om Nagar in Fazalganj, the DCP said. He added that Shukla was seen coming out of the house after 20 minutes, but the victim was not.
Shukla, the key conspirator, was also seen riding away the kidnapped boy's scooty and changing the vehicle's number plate. Thereafter, the police immediately apprehended him, and he allegedly confessed to committing the crime. Later Shukla's fiancee Rachita Vats and Shiva Gupta, both residents of Fazalganj, were also arrested. Police said that a case has been registered against the three and they have been arrested under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Reacting to the incident, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a post on X, "In the case of kidnapping and murder of a textile businessman's son in Kanpur, a conspiracy to demand ransom by linking the crime to a particular community and thereby diverting the attention of the police is a very serious matter. This kind of trend is extremely dangerous for the country and society, stringent action should be taken against it."
Meanwhile, Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Shekhar Dixit also condemned the incident, saying the law and order situation in the state is "very bad". Rashtriya Lok Dal's UP Unit Spokesperson Ankur Saxena alleged that the law and order machinery in the state has collapsed due to which such incidents are taking place, as per PTI.
