Behind Greater Noida teenager’s murder in Bulandshahr, a plot straight out of Netflix film

After a gun fight at service road of Dadha roundabout in Greater Noida late Wednesday evening, the Greater Noida police nabbed three men and a woman, who were allegedly involved in the abduction and the murder.

The main accused who hatched the entire conspiracy, the police said, is Manoj Sharma who is the maternal cousin of the murdered boy. The police said that Manoj owned a dhaba at Beta-2 in Greater Noida where Krishna Kumar worked along with his son.

Manoj owed money to Krishna Kumar and after he was unable to repay the debt, Krishna Kumar, who had once been an employee of Manoj, took over the dhaba. Police said while Manoj didn’t resist the takeover at that time, he was angry and conspired to murder Krishna Kumar’s son. Manoj thought a bereaved Krishna Kumar would not be able to continue running the dhaba and eventually hand the business back to him, said police.

Kumar had also lent Rs 2 lakh to another accused, Himanshu, through Manoj.

Police said that the accused had watched Rajkummar Rao-starrer film HIT: The First Case on Netflix to get inputs for their murder plan.

The conspiracy

As part of an elaborate conspiracy, Manoj roped in his friend Himanshu of Agauta village in Bulandshahr along with Kunal Bhati of Dadha village in Gautam Buddha Nagar and a woman, Tanu. The police said that Tanu, who is pursuing MBBS, is a friend of Bhati.

On May 1, Tanu went to the dhaba and told Kunal that Himanshu wanted to meet him. Once the teenager got in their car, they gagged him, tied his limbs, and stuffed him in a suitcase. They took him to Himanshu’s flat in Jaypee Wishtown in Noida. Once inside, they smashed his head and killed him.

Manoj and his accomplices, police probe revealed, took Kunal’s body in a car to Bulandshahr where they threw it into a canal.

The pretence

For next five days, Manoj regularly visited his aunt’s house, ostensibly to help in search of his cousin. “Manoj is from our family only. That is a bigger tragedy. Manoj and Himanshu came regularly to our home after Kunal went missing. They were pretending to help us,” Kunal’s father told The Indian Express. “I had no clue that the murderers of my child were sitting with me, eating with us,” he added.

He said once the police recovered Kunal’s body, Manoj and Himanshu again came to meet the family. “How would one have any suspicion in such a situation?” said Krishna Kumar, a widower.

Talking about his younger son, Krishna Kumar said, “He was very good in his studies. He wanted to become an IAS officer…”

Earlier, the Noida police had removed the station house officer of the Beta-2 police station for negligence in duty after the kin of the boy alleged that police inaction led to his death.

“A total of 11 teams were formed… During interrogation, the accused admitted to the crime…They saw a movie named HIT, from which they learned tricks like how to fabricate and destroy the evidence and misguide the police. They changed the sticker on the vehicle, changed their dresses, and removed fingerprints from the body, to dispose of the mobile phone,” said Babloo Kumar, Additional Police Commissioner (HQ).