Uttar Pradesh youth arrested for posing as Muslim, 'justifying' Shraddha's murder

Members of a saffron outfit had also met the district police officials on Thursday and demanded Kumar's arrest, though they had no idea that he was a Hindu

An Uttar Pradesh youth, who pretended to be Muslim and justified the way Shraddha Walkar was murdered, was arrested on Friday after a video purportedly containing recordings of his remarks went viral on social media.

According to the police sources, the youth, who was a Hindu and whose real name was Vikas Kumar, a resident of Sikandrabad in UP's Bulandshahar district, was nabbed from Delhi.

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Police sources said that Vikas, while speaking to a representative of a Delhi-based online news portal, identified himself as Rashid Khan and said that there was nothing abnormal in the way Shraddha was murdered by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala. Aftab allegedly strangled Shraddha to death before chopping her body into 35 parts and disposing them over several months in and around Delhi.

"It can happen when someone is very angry. Aftab did so in extreme anger. A man can even chop a body into 36 pieces in rage," Kumar is heard saying in the video when queried about Shraddha murder case.

He also said, in reply to another question, that he too could do the same in rage.

Police officials in Bulandshahar said that a case was lodged against Kumar after the video surfaced on social media a couple of days back. "Vikas has a criminal history. He already had five criminal cases registered against him, including those of theft and under the Arms Act," said a district police official.

Members of a saffron outfit had also met the district police officials on Thursday and demanded the arrest of Kumar, though they had no idea that he was a Hindu.

Kumar later said that he had no idea that his remarks would be taken so seriously. He also said that the news portal reporter did not believe him when he told him that his name was Vikas and took him to be a Muslim.