Man murders DU student whom he met on dating App

To mislead cops, accused made ransom call to family demanding Rs 50 lakh

NEW DELHI: A 21-year-old boy was murdered by a man whom he met on a dating App in Delhi. The accused Ishtiyak (26) repeatedly hit him with a hammer on March 22 till the victim collapsed. To cover up his crime and give it an angle of kidnapping to dodge investigators, Ishtiyak gave a Whatsapp message to his family demanding a ransom of Rs 50 lakh.

On Wednesday, the body of the DU student, Ayush Nautiyal, was found near a drain in Sector-13 in Dwarka. “Both of them met through a dating App on Internet. The accused unfortunately murdered the victim on the third day of their meeting after an argument. We have arrested him from Uttam Nagar,” said Joint CP Ajay Chowdhary.

Ajay Nautiyal was a student B Com at Ram Lal Anand College in South Campus. It is said that he met Ishtiyak who worked in a packaging unit of an import-export firm through 'Tinder' App and some other dating Apps. Thereafter, both started meeting frequently. The accused told the police that within a span of 10 days, he met the victim three times, the last was on March 22.

“We tracked the accused after we got a CCTV footage from a restaurant where both of them met. The investigation led us to a fashion institute. Later, we were able to track him. However, he weaved a story of kidnapping to mislead the police and buy time to dispose the body,” said Chowdhary.

The family had no idea about the whereabouts of the boy after he left home saying he was going to attend a college fest. Later, when the boy did not return and the family received a Whatsapp message demanding Rs 50 lakh in ransom, they contacted Palam Police station and lodged a complaint. After registering the kidnapping FIR, cops made several teams to trace Ayush. However, the cops said that he was murdered the same day he went missing.

The body of the DU student, Ayush Nautiyal, was found near a drain in Sector-13, Dwarka on Wednesday