Inspired from the popular TV crime serial " Crime Patrol", a Delhi University student, along with two accomplices, strangled a class 11 student to death in south Delhi's Mehrauli for trying to woo his girlfriend, and then enacted an abduction drama to cover their involvement in the murder. Police said they have arrested the accused and sent the minor to the juvenile home.

The accused's effort to hide the crime proved to be their undoing as it enabled police to solve the kidnapping and murder.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, South district, Ishwar Singh, said that Navin, a first year BA student in Delhi University's Aryabhatta College, had a grudge against the victim identified as 17-year-old Jatin for trying to become friendly with his girlfriend.

On Saturday evening, Navin and his friends Akash along with a minor, all residents of Mehrauli area, invited Jatin for samosas at a roadside eatery in Chattarpur. Thereafter, they took him to a nearby farmhouse where first, they brutally beat him and then strangulated him to death.

They hid his body in a nearby forest while taking away his phone and other belongings, including his ID card, the DCP said.

The family of Jatin, in the meantime, called him on his mobile phone after he did not return home.

" The parents of the victim kept on Jatin's phone but the accused was initially ignoring them. However, he later picked up the call and then posing as kidnappers, demanded a ransom of Rs 20 lakh from the victim's parents to set him free," said the DCP.

"The accused then switched off Jatin's phone. The family members  immediately approached police and informed them about Jatin's kidnapping. We tracked down the location of the victim's phone and found his scooter at the spot. The police team also examined all the CCTV footage of major intersections and roads, and found three masked youth on a bike," Singh said, adding one of Jatin's friends identified the bike as belonging to Akash.

Akash was picked up for questioning, and during interrogation, broke down and admitted to being involved in the murder and revealed the mastermind was Naveen, who used to study in Jatin's school in Mehrauli.

"Naveen hatched the crime after watching 'Crime Petrol' and killed Jatin, along with him and their minor friend, in a fit of rage as Jatin wanted to become friends with his girlfriend," the DCP added.