Abducted engineer found murdered in Delhi

 A young engineer was strangled allegedly by this three friends in west Delhi for getting hold of the money the victim's father got in a land deal, police said today.

Johny Gupta (23), who worked as a site engineer with a private company, was murdered on April three night hours after his close friend Anoop (25) allegedly took him to a godown in Kamruddin Nagar in west Delhi's Nihal Vihar, they said.

Anup, a marketing executive, and his friends Anil (26), a tempo driver, and Avinash (36), the godown owner, were arrested, R S Krishnaiah, Joint Commissioner of Police, said.

According to police, the murder took place at around 9 pm on April three and the family received a ransom call of Rs one crore later. Police claimed they received the information about the victim being missing around 11:30 pm that night

"The deceased's father had received some money on a land deal. Anoop, the mastermind, and his friends wanted to get hold of that money and they executed the murder," Krishnaiah claimed.
Giving the sequence of events, he said, Gupta, who holds a diploma in civil engineering was last scene at Keshavpuram on April three 6:30 pm with one of his friend Ashok.

Checking of Gupta's call records showed that after that he had received a call from Anoop and that the ransom call was made from the deceased's phone.

Anoop was questioned the next day but he "initially tried to mislead" investigators but later broke down and confessed to the crime, Krishnaiah said.

"Anoop had asked Gupta to come near Punjabi Bagh fly over on the fateful day. Gupta was made to park his motorcycle at Peeragarhi metro station from where both went to the godown owned by Avinash on Anoop's motorcycle," he said."Anil and Avinash were waiting for them at the godown. Gupta tried to leave the place later but was not allowed. The trio strangled him. After murdering him, a ransom call of Rs one crore was made to his family at around 11:30 pm," Krishnaiah said.
They allegedly buried him inside the godown and even put salt on it so that the body decomposed faster, he claimed.

Investigators said the ransom call was traced to Wazirpur area and that there were no second ransom call.

Following Anoop's questioning, the body was recovered as well as the deceased's mobile phone.
The victim's brother claimed, "the abductor called and asked for Rs one crore ransom. He said if you want him safe, don't inform police or media."

The brother alleged that police did not register a case at the first place. Police denied the allegations.

"The murder took place around 9 pm. We were informed about the missing of Gupta at 11:30 pm. When the ransom call came, we added charges of abduction in the case.

"There was no chance to save the victim as he was killed before we were informed," Krishnaiah said