Ghaziabad: Third accused in Ayush Sharma murder case held

A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a class 9 student of the St. Francis School in Indirapuram on April 17, from the Kanawani area on Wednesday. The arrested accused had hatched the plan to abduct the victim, Ayush Sharma and demand money from his father, the police said.

According to the police, the accused has been identified Vishal Soni, a resident of Pratap Vihar. He was arrested following a secret information.

" We had received an information that Soni is hiding in the Kanawani area and a team was formed and he was nabbed on Wednesday," said Akash Tomar, superintendent of Police(City), Ghaziabad.

Ayush was killed on April 16 and his body lay in the ditch for four days before the police traced the prime suspect— a 19-year-old youth identified as Virat — who led them to the spot on April 20. The police said that Virat and Ayush had met just "12-13 days" ago through a 17-year-old Class X student who was a common friend. Virat decided to kidnap Ayush because he desperately needed money and killed him when he refused to call up his parents and tell them that he had been abducted and ask for a ransom, the police had said.

Virat's name had been mentioned by Ayush's father when he lodged a missing person's complaint at Indirapuram police station on April 17.

Both the other accused were previously arrested by the police but the third accused Soni was at large. Thereafter, a Rs 25,000 reward on his head was declared by SSP Ghaziabad.

Soni, a resident of Vijay Nagar, is a notorious criminal and a known history-sheeter with at least seven cases registered against him at the Indirapuram Police Station. He has formed different gangs and has previously been to jail on charges of auto-lifting from the Indirapuram area in 2015 in which eight bikes were recovered at his instance.

The police recovered one Bullet bike used in the crime, one mobile related to Ayush's murder and one country-made pistol with two cartridges.

RECAP

• Ayush was killed on April 16 and his body lay in the ditch for four days before the police traced the prime suspect— a 19-year-old youth identified as Virat — who led them to the spot on April 20. The police said that Virat and Ayush had met just “12-13 days” ago through a 17-year-old Class X student who was a common friend. Virat decided to kidnap Ayush because he desperately needed money and killed him when he refused to call up his parents and tell them that he had been abducted and ask for a ransom