New Delhi, April 6
When Ravinder Kumar received a ransom call for Rs 1 crore for the release of his kidnapped son, he never imagined that the son had already been murdered.

Three persons, including a close friend of the 23-year-old victim, an engineer, were arrested today for allegedly murdering him and then demanding Rs 1crore from his father as ransom for his release.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (North West District) Romil Baaniya said, "The three accused have been identified as Anil (26), Avinash Srivastav (36) and Anoop (21), a close friend of victim Johnny Gupta."

The accused had allegedly used Johnny's mobile phone to call his father Ravinder Kumar for ransom. The call was made at 11.59 pm on April 4, the same day Jhonny went missing.

Johnny worked as a site engineer with a private contractor at Model Town. He used to leave for work from his residence at Paschim Vihar at 8 am. On April 4, his family got worried when he did not return from work. Family members telephoned his friends, but did not get any information on his whereabouts. Around 11.35 pm, Johnny's father informed the police. A couple of minutes later a person telephoned Ravinder from his son's mobile phone. The caller demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore for Johnny's release.

The police questioned Johnny's friends and relatives and learnt that he had met one Ashok before meeting his friend Anoop at Punjabi Bagh.

"Anoop gave contradictory statements about his meeting with Johnny on April 4. He was also unable to explain his whereabouts between 7 and 9 pm on the same day. Subsequently, he confessed to have kidnapped Johnny with Anil and Avinash," said Romil Baaniya.

The accused disclosed to the police that they had planned the kidnapping a week ago. They were unable to execute the plan then because Avinash was out of Delhi for few days. Anoop knew that Ravinder had recently received a large sum of money and could easily pay up Rs 1 crore, said Baaniya.

On April 3, at 6.40 pm, Anoop telephoned Johnny and asked him to meet him at the Punjabi Bagh flyover. Johnny parked his motorcycle at the Peera Garhi Metro station. Anoop took Johnny to a semi-constructed godown at Kamruddin Nagar in Nangloi. The godown was rented in by Avinash.

Johnny met Avinash and Anil at the godown. After a while, Anoop left on some pretext. Around 9 pm, when Johnny insisted on leaving, he was stopped by the other two accused.

"They strangled him with a wire and buried his body in a pit that they had dug a week ago. They had coated the body with salt for quick decomposition. Anil and Avinash then took Johnny's wallet and mobile phone and fled the godown on a motorcycle," said Baaniya.

After reaching Wazirpur, the two called up Johnny's father for ransom. Thereafter, they left for their residences.

The accused had planned to direct Ravinder to board the Gomti Express heading to Lucknow from Delhi for the payment of the ransom. But, the police apprehended them before the plan could be executed.

This is the second instance of a person being murdered for money by his friends in the city in the recent past. On March 22, 19-year-old Aashish Garg was murdered by his friends, who then made a ransom call of Rs 50 lakh to his father. 

He got greedy after seeing brother’s lavish wedding
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 6
Johnny Gupta probably never thought that one day he would be betrayed by his friend Anoop, who allegedly conspired with two men in murdering him for ransom.

Anoop's greed for money apparently started when he attended Johnny's elder brother Rinku Gupta's wedding in February. "It was a lavish wedding. Anoop had attended it. He knew that Johnny's father is a builder and assumed that the family is wealthy," said Johnny's cousin Sonu.

Johnny's family members said that Anoop was his classmate in college. Johnny graduated in civil engineering from Baba Saheb Ambedkar College. Sonu said that Anoop could not complete the course due to financial difficulties.

While grieving for Johnny, Sonu curses Anoop who reached Johnny's residence on the day he went missing.

"On the evening of April 3, Johnny had telephoned his elder brother Rinku and told him that he would be late while returning home. That was the last time we heard from him. Rinku tried calling Johnny after a while, but his mobile phone was switched off. Rinku and his father Ravinder Kumar became worried and called Johnny's friends. But, no one could tell us about his whereabouts. Rinku then called Anoop," said Sonu.

Anoop reached Johnny's residence. "He stayed with us until the FIR was registered. We later suspected him after we noticed that he was constantly talking on his mobile phone. He was also making calls from a PCO booth. Johnny’s friend Rahul said that Anoop had told him that he should tell the police that they were together from 7 pm to 10 pm on April 3," said Sonu.

Cops wasted time, did not guide us properly: Family 
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 6
The family of the 23-year-old engineer, Johnny Gupta, who was murdered before his killers made a ransom call to his father, alleged that the police was negligent by not directing them to the appropriate police station.

Johnny's cousin Rajesh Gupta said that the policemen who reached the residence of the victim at Paschim Vihar were not helpful.

"Johnny's father Ravinder Kumar placed a call to the PCR at 11.30 pm on April 3. Policemen reached his house and after a while, Ravinder received a ransom call from his son's mobile phone. The caller demanded Rs 1 crore. The policemen had heard the conversation, but didn't tell us the police station where we had to lodge a complaint," said Rajesh.

Johnny's family rushed to the Paschim Vihar police station . They told policemen that Johnny works at Model Town.

"The policemen said that he probably went missing from Model Town so we should lodge a complaint at the Keshav Puram police station. The cops at our house could have directed us to the right police station. They wasted our time," said Rajesh.

New Delhi, April 6
The expelling spree of party workers by both the BJP and the Congress still continues as the rebel candidates persist on canvassing against their organisations after having denied tickets in the municipal elections.

The Congress today expelled four office-bearers from the party for six years on the lieu of carrying out anti-party activities in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, said Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Jai Prakash Agarwal.

Satinder Rana, president of Chawla Block Congress Committee from ward No 13; Kaptan Singh, DPCC secretary in ward No 10 Timarpur; Sunil Vashisht, secretary in Badarpur ward No 260 and Ramesh Pehlwan, Congress candidate in 2007 municipal elections from ward No 158 have been expelled.

"Satinder Rana is contesting as an independent candidate from ward No 134 whereas from ward numbers 10, 260 and 158, the wives of those who have been expelled are contesting as independent candidates and they are working for the election campaigns of their wives," said Agrawal.

Though the party has taken action against four councillors, there are many more rebel members who are either contesting themselves or have fielded their wives or other family members against the party in the polls.

However, the BJP has expelled seven party workers for indisciplinary behaviour. "They are creating indiscipline in the party which cannot be tolerated," said Vijender Gupta, president of the BJP Delhi unit.

The expelled candidates include Rajesh Gaur, Balbir Tyagi, Urmilla Gangwal, Mahinder Kaur Narula. They are also sitting councillors in the MCD, whereas Kailash Gangwal, Satish Tahlan and Balwinder Sharma are party workers. All these have been expelled for six years.

The party has earlier also expelled seven councillors for rebelling against the party.

New Delhi, April 6
Relief may arrive for students fretting over the clash of dates of their final year exams with some entrance tests for post-graduate courses at some of the leading universities.

The Delhi University Students Union had approached the office of the dean of exams seeking a revision of dates of the exams. "We are looking into the matter. The process of finalising the datesheet is complicated and hence it isn't easy to revise the datesheet. We need to see a lot of factors, including the combination of papers across different streams. Everything will be done to protect the interest of the students," said a senior DU official at the registrar's office.

Final year students are particularly miffed with their exams clashing with several entrance exam dates for chartered accountancy, MA in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).

If the dates aren't changed, third year students of political science will face a clash with JNU's MA entrance exams, scheduled for May 22 to 25. Date of entrance exam of postgraduate courses in IIMC is slated for May 21 which is also clashing with one of the English papers.

"According to the date schedule uploaded on the university website, two exams of English and statistics or mathematics on May 14 and 16 are clashing with the chartered accountancy entrance test. Also, the UPSC entrance test will be held just a day before the university exams," said spokesperson for National Students' Union of India Amrish Ranjan Pandey.