Kanpur businessman's teenage son killed by tuition teacher's boyfriend, family receives ransom note

A teenager, son of a famous business in Kanpur, was found dead on Tuesday, a day after he had gone missing. Police have arrested the victim's tuition teacher and her boyfriend for allegedly murdering the teenager and then trying to pass it off as kidnapping.

Kanpur: In a shocking incident, a 17-year-old youth who had gone missing while going to the tuition class on Monday evening, was found murdered in Uttar Pradesh Kanpur on Tuesday, the police said. The deceased has been identified as Kushagra Kanodia, son of famous textile businessman Manish Kanodia, a resident of Raipurwa in Kanpur.

Police said that the deceased was killed by his teacher's boyfriend who also sent a ransom note to Kushagra's family to make it look like a kidnapping. The police arrested the tuition teacher Rachita and her boyfriend Prabhat Shukla. The ransom letter, sources said, had "Allah Hu Akbar" written on it which police said was a ploy to divert the investigation.

According to DCP Central Pramod Kumar, the victim Kushagra had left home on Monday at 4 pm for his tuition classes. He didn't return home but around 9 pm his family received a letter for ransom of Rs 30 lakhs. While the motive of the murder is not known yet, it appears Prabhat suspected the victim was in a relationship with his girlfriend. Further investigation into the matter is underway.

The police said that Prabhat and his friend Shiva had been following the victim for the past three days. On Monday, when Kushagra left for tuition, on the way he met Prabhat at Zarib Chowki, a stone's throw away from his house in Acharya Nagar. Prabhat offered to drop Kushagra for his classes as the latter knew Prabhat through his teacher Rachita.

Prabhat took him to his house and offered him coffee that was mixed with sleeping pills. When Kushagra lost consciousness, Prabhat allegedly strangled him with a rope at around 7 pm on Monday.

At 8 pm, Shiva and Rachita reached Prabhat's house and they dumped his body in the Fazalganj police station area. The police recovered the body of the teenager on Tuesday morning. CCTV footage has surfaced showing Prabhat and Kushagra entering the former's house together.