The Hindu : New Delhi News : Three held for kidnap, murder of jeweller's son

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Three held for kidnap, murder of jeweller's son

By Our Staff Correspondent

Grieving family members of Abhi Verma whose body (right) was found in the fields near Jalandhar a day after he was kidnapped from Hoshiarpur. --PTI

CHANDIGARH, FEB. 15. The police have arrested three persons, including a woman, for kidnapping and later murdering Abhi Verma, the only son of a Hoshiarpur-based jeweller. The teenager's body was recovered from the fields in Alawalpur village near Adampur town under Jalandhar district this morning.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for Jalandhar range, S.K. Sharma, told reporters in Hoshiarpur that those arrested were identified as Vikram Walia alias Vicky, Jasbir Singh and the latter's wife Sonia. The trio have been booked on charges of murdering Abhi Vermaafter they kidnapped him on Monday morning.

Mr. Sharma claimed that the trio had confessed to the kidnapping of Abhi, a Class IX student of DAV Senior Secondary School at Hoshiarpur, with the intention of seeking a ransom of Rs 50 lakhs from his father, Ravi Verma. The police believe the plan to be the brainchild of Jasbir Singh, who was desperate to return Rs. 2 lakh rupees, he had borrowed from Vicky who is suspected to have executed the gruesome act.

Vicky, who runs a flourishing real estate business and transport company in Hoshiarpur, was an acquaintance of the Verma's. The trion allegedly borrowed a car from Vicky's friend's father to execute their plan. After bundling him into the car, they took Abhi to Jasbir Singh's house in Milap Nagar and subsequently made a ransom call to his parents.

Preliminary investigations indicated that while attempting to control Abhi, the captors either injected him with an overdose of some intoxicant or strangulated him on Monday night. They allegedly sought to dispose off his body by dumping him in the fields of Alawalpur village.

While there were no clothes on the body, Abhi's mouth was sealed with a tape and limbs tied with a nylon chord. The police also claimed to have recovered the half burnt school bag and clothes that Abhi wore, at some distance from where his body was recovered. The body also bore beating marks.

Reacting to the incident, which comes close on the heels of the still unsolved kidnapping case of another teenager, Prabir Singh in Amritsar last week, the president of the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Parkash Singh Badal demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, who according to him should own moral responsibility for the "total breakdown of law and order machinery'' in the State.

In a statement issued by the party's media office, Mr. Badal said that the prevailing lawlessness was a direct outcome of Capt Singh sacrificing governance at the altar of personal leisure and political expediency.

Describing the Hoshiarpur incident as "shocking beyond words and a gruesome reminder of the state of anarchy prevailing in Punjab under the present Government,'' Mr. Badal urged the Governor, Gen. S.F. Rodrigues to convene a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to discuss the breakdown of law and order.

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