Schoolmate, three others arrested for killing student in Bihar's Bettiah

A Class IX student was killed on Friday by his schoolmate and three others. The police said that the motive behind the murder was a love affair.

Bettiah: The Bihar police on Friday arrested four people for killing a school student for having a love affair. The deceased student was identified as Ashish Kumar, son of gold businessman Nagnarayan Shah, a Class IX student. On Wednesday evening, Ashish's father received a message on his phone stating that his son had been abducted and if he didn't pay Rs 20 lakhs ransom, then his son would be killed. On receiving the information, the police launched an investigation into the incident.

According to the police, Ashish had a love affair with a girl. The girl's brother, who was a senior of Ashish, studying in the same school hatched a conspiracy with his three other accused to kill him. The police said that on Wednesday, the accused student took Ashish away from the school with the help of his other companions identified as Roshan, Rajbali and Ramu Chaudhary, all residents of the Kumarbagh police station area. Later, they bashed Ashish to death. After carrying out the crime, in fear of getting caught, they tied his hands and legs and dumped the body in a pond near the village.

Bettiah Superintendent of Police (SP) Amarkesh D said, "Four people, who carried out the crime, including the deceased's friend, have been arrested. They have been planning to kill Ashish for the past month. Ashish was killed on Wednesday, on the same day he was kidnapped. During the inquiry, we found that the students had bunked classes around 12 pm and escaped from the school and the accused killed Ashish at 3 pm on the same day. After that, four people were arrested," the SP said.

According to the police, the three accused involved in the incident with the minor student carried out the crime to extort money from Ashish's father. The police recovered four mobiles and SIM cards, which were used to demand ransom.