Teenager Kills Friend, Dumps Body In River In Rajasthan's Kota: Cops

A 19-year-old youth was arrested here on Thursday for allegedly abducting and killing a friend who lived in his building over some past insult, police said.

According to police, Sohit Meena, 19, a resident of Baran district, had gone missing on Tuesday from his rented room in Mahaveer Nagar area of Kota city, where he had been preparing for agriculture supervisor selection examination.

The same evening Meena's sister received a WhatsApp message with the demand of Rs 50,000 in ransom for Meena's release.

After the ransom message, the victim's father lodged a complaint at Mahaveer Nagar Police Station on Tuesday, prompting Kota city SP Sharad Choudhary to form three separate teams to trace Meena.

Police in their investigation scoured at least 1,000 footage from several CCTV cameras from all suspected locations and zeroed in on his friend, a 19-year-old Piyush Rathore, and detained him, Mr Choudhary said.

According to police, Meena and Thakur lived in the same building but different rooms in the Mahaveer Nagar area.

During interrogation, Thakur told police he had killed Meena and dumped his body into Aalniya river, a tributary of Chambal river, near Chhatneshwar Mehadev temple. He also said he had tied a heavy stone to the body with a rope to weigh it down, the SP said.

Meena's body was fished out on Wednesday from the river and was submitted for collection of evidence by the Forensic Science Lab, he said.

Rathore, a resident of Dei town in Bundi district, was arrested under section 365 (kidnappping), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 302 (murder) of IPC, Circle Inspector at Mahaveer Nagar Police Station Paramjeet Singh said.

Meena's body was handed over to his family members after post mortem on Wednesday afternoon, he said. The accused would be produced before a court on Friday, Singh said.

Initial interrogation revealed that Meena and Rathore had a minor spat when they lived in the same building and Rathore killed Meena to avenge his insult, DSP Harshraj Singh, the area's Circle Officer, said.

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