Greater Noida student murder: Police deploy teams to trace fifth suspect

Four suspects arrested in the murder of a 20-year-old student in Greater Noida, one still on the run. Victim found buried, suspects were friends.

After the arrest of four people involved in the murder of a 20-year-old student of a Greater Noida university, the police have now deployed two teams to nab the fifth suspect, who is on the run since the incident came to light on Wednesday, police officials aware of the matter said on Friday.

Yash Mittal (above), a resident of Amroha who was pursuing BBA from Greater Noida, went missing from his college on Monday. He was found buried six foot deep in a field in Amroha’s Gajraula town on Wednesday evening. (HT Photo)

Yash Mittal, a resident of Amroha who was pursuing BBA from Greater Noida, went missing from his college on Monday. He was found buried six foot deep in a field in Amroha’s Gajraula town on Wednesday evening.

While one of his friends Rachit Nagar, who led the police to the murder spot, was arrested by the police on Wednesday, three of his other friends, identified as Shivam Singh (23), Sumit Pradhan (24), and Sushant Verma (24), were arrested later in the wee hours of Thursday, following a brief gunfight with the police in Dadri, Greater Noida.

The absconding suspect has been identified as Shubham Chaudhary, said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (Greater Noida) SM Khan.

“While the four suspects have been sent to judicial custody, police teams have been deployed to nab Chaudhary, a resident of Gajraula, Amroha. He is also known to Yash’s elder sister who studies in the same university. Yash used to refer to Chaudhary as ‘Bhaiya’ (brother) and they were all in the same friends group,” said Khan.

It is suspected that Chaudhary fled after the murder in the same car in which Yash had travelled from Greater Noida to Amroha on Monday night, said police officers.

“We are yet to recover the white Swift Dzire car in which Yash had left from college along with his friends for Amroha. It is suspected that Chaudhary ran away in this car. We are close to tracing him and he will be nabbed soon,” said station house officer (Dadri police station) Sujeet Upadhyay.

The post-mortem report of the deceased has revealed that he was assaulted before being strangled, he added.

“While the cause of death is due to strangulation, there are several other injuries found on the deceased. Further, it is estimated that he was murdered about 65-70 hours before his body was recovered,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, an investigation has revealed that one of the suspects, Sushant, used to contact Yash through a SIM card, registered in someone else’s name.

This SIM card was used solely to make calls to Yash from November 27, 2023. It was found the actual mobile owner had lost that phone, and “Sushant had somehow got hold of it. He used it to speak to Yash,” said DCP Khan.

It was also found that on February 14, the suspects had tried to take Yash for a party but he had refused.

“Yash had been distancing himself from the group of friends for about one month now, which had further infuriated his friends. On February 26, when they again asked him to come for the party, Yash could not refuse and went ahead,” said the officer.