Kidnapped Delhi Student’s Family Drove Around With 10 Lakh Ransom, Found His Body

New Delhi : A Delhi University student kidnapped a week ago was found murdered last night, the police said today. Ayush Nautiyal, 21, was kidnapped from his home in Dwarka in northwest Delhi. His kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh.

The police received a complaint on Thursday last, the day he was kidnapped, apparently just after he left home for college. When he didn’t return home that evening, his parents grew worried. As they waited, Ayush’s father received a WhatsApp message from his phone.

The message from Ayush’s phone showed him gagged and bound, with a head injury, and asked for Rs 50 lakh.

The family immediately went to the police.

The family had reportedly raised Rs 10 lakh and tried to hand it over to the kidnappers but couldn’t find them. Last night, his body was found near a drain in Dwarka.

Ayush, a final year student of commerce at the Ram Lal Anand college, was the only son of his parents.

His grief-stricken family has accused the police of not doing enough to track the kidnappers down. "We carried the money and drove through the area in search of the kidnappers. A police van escorted us, but we could not find anything for two days. Then we saw his body," a cousin was quoted as telling a newspaper.

A five-year-old boy was kidnapped from his school van a day before Republic Day, when there is heavy security across Delhi, by bikers who shot at the driver. Luckily for his family, the child was found days later in Ghaziabad and recovered after the police shot dead one of his kidnappers.