Hoshiarpur, February 15
Panic-stricken residents of this city plunged into grief as they came to know that the abducted ninth class student, Abhi Verma, alias Harry, has been brutally murdered by abductors. His body was found lying naked in fields at Daulatpur village near Adampur in Jalandhar district in the wee hours today.

Tension gripped the city and shopkeepers downed their shutters almost immediately after unfortunate news came at around 9.30 a.m. after a spell of confusion over the identity of the body. What shocked them the most was that the killers of innocent Abhi were none but allegedly some of his influential acquaintances who had been eyeing the big jewellery business of his father, Ravi Verma, for some time.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested three persons — Vikramjit Singh, alias Vicky Walia (25), his accomplices husband-wife duo Jasbir Singh (26) and his wife Sonia — for alleged murder of Abhi. He was allegedly abducted by them from near the Simla Pahari chowk at around 8.40 a.m. on Monday while he was heading for the DAV Senior Secondary School, where he was studying in Class IX.

Vicky, an affluent property dealer and owner of a school in Model Town area, was known to Abhi and his family as Abhi was a frequent visitor to Vicky’s computer shop and Vicky had been a regular customer at Ravi Verma’s Dabbi bazaar jewellery shop. Jasbir, another accused, was a friend of Vicky and it was he who had allegedly persuaded Vicky to kidnap Abhi as this would enable him to not only return a loan of Rs 2.5 lakh, which he had reportedly taken from Vicky, but would also fetch “handsome” money to both of them.

Mr S.K. Sharma, IG, Jalandhar Zone, said for executing their abduction plan Vicky took an Alto car (PB-07-5023) from his friend. They bundled Abhi into it and took him directly to Milapnagar house of Jasbir Singh. When Abhi resisted it, they put a wide adhesive tape on his mouth and tied his legs with the tape and a chord. But when he refused to give up the struggle, the abductors allegedly injected some sedative substance in his body. Later taking him as dead they put him in Black Chevorlet car and headed for Adampur where, they dumped Abhi. Before dumping him, they took off his clothes. The reason behind the immediate murder of Abhi was said to be the enhanced surveillance in the area. The apprehension among abductors that they could be arrested in case they kept Abhi in their house anymore. In their bid to conceal the identity of body for some time, the abductors had also burnt his dress and his school bag.

The police has seized the Chevorlet and Alto cars used in the crime.

The Hoshiarpur police, it was learnt, had got the information about dead body near Alawalpur at about 1.30 a.m. and subsequently this information was passed on to Jalandhar police, which, in turn recovered the body after getting finger prints lifted from the site. The body was identified by Sanjiv Verma, an uncle of Abhi, at around 12 noon. The abductors, it was learnt, have revealed that they had to kill him as he had identified them. They had also allegedly threatened Abhi’s father at 7.30 p.m. on Monday that since he had informed the police, he would “see” the results of it.