Delhi Police reached Uttarakhand on Sunday to investigate the murder of 14-year old Swapnil in Nainital. The accused are also teenagers- one is boy and the other a girl. This was confirmed by the Ramnagar Police station sub inspector Pratap Singh Negi while talking to The Pioneer over the phone.
The teen’s body had been recovered from Devrani range, which falls in Corbett national park's buffer zone on September 18, and later the Ramanagar police had conducted the last rites of the unidentified boy. On September 19, Ramnagar police received a call from Badarpur, Delhi based on which the body was identified as that of Swapnil Gupta. They also informed that Swapnil's parent had lodged a complaint in Badarpur police station on September 15 about the kidnapping of his son.
later Police came to know that the unidentified body which they had cremated had been identified as that of Swapnil Gupta who had been missing from Badarpur in Delhi.
During investigation, it has revealed that two teenagers- one girl and one boy, who were running a dance academy in Faridabad, had kidnapped Swapnil. The accused teenagers were desperately looking for Rs 50,000 cash to participate in a dance competition in Mumbai. To get this money, they had reportedly targeted Swapnil, who had joined their academy about one month ago. They lured him to Kashipur on September 16 claiming that there was a dance competition taking place there.
Meanwhile, they made ransom call to Swapnil’s parent. When they realised that they would not get money from his parent then they strangled Swapnil with a belt, which was part of school uniform. They then dumped his body by the side of the national highway that falls in buffer zone of Corbett in Ramnagar.
Investigation has also revealed that Swapnil was kept in Kashipur a day before his murder. Although Delhi police has arrested the accused duo, to understand the case on the spot, Badarpur Police station Inspector Rajesh Kumar Singh along with his two associates reached Ramnagar on Sunday. Ramnagar Police has been assisting them in the murder investigation so far.
Talking to The Pioneer, the Ramnagar police sub inspector said that both the deceased and the two accused belong to Bihar, but are currently staying in Faridabad. The father of the deceased works as a private security guard.