Missing Ghaziabad teen found murdered in Greater Noida

The Class 9 student had gone missing from Ghaziabad on April 16. Police suspect the involvement of two ‘friends’ who disclosed the location of his body.

The body of a 16-year-old boy was recovered from Greater Noida on Friday, four days after he went missing from his Ghaziabad residence under suspicious circumstances.

An investigation revealed that two suspects allegedly called up the teenager on his mobile phone at 1:37 pm on the day of his disappearance. (AFP File Photo/Representative purpose only)

Police said they found the body on the basis of information procured from two suspects, one of whom is a minor.

Ayush Sharma, a Class 9 student at the St Francis School in Indirapuram, had gone missing from the vicinity of his Vaishali Sector-2A residence on April 16. An FIR was lodged against unidentified persons at the Indirapuram police station the next day.

An investigation revealed that the two suspects had allegedly called up the boy on his mobile phone at 1:37 pm on the day of his disappearance. They were brought in for questioning on Friday.

“According to what the police told us, the suspects met my son at a culvert near our residence and asked him to get some money from me. When he declined, they offered him a cold drink laced with sedative,” said Pramod Sharma, the victim’s father.

Police said the two suspects disclosed the location of Ayush’s body after questioning. “It seems as if a blunt stone-like object was used to inflict the injuries on the boy’s body, which was recovered around 2 pm on Friday,” said Shavez Khan, station house officer of the Ecotech-III police station in Greater Noida.

While the boy’s parents said they were unaware of any link between him and the two suspects, the police think otherwise. “They called him on his mobile phone on the day of the incident, and asked him to get some money from his father. When he refused to do so, they took him to Greater Noida – from where the body was eventually recovered,” Indirapuram circle officer Dharmendra Chauhan told HT.

Chauhan said they will know more about the incident after the two suspects are further questioned in this regard.