As part of a complex scheme, Manoj enlisted the help of his friend Himanshu from Agauta village in Bulandshahr, along with Kunal Bhati from Dadha village in Gautam Buddha Nagar, and a woman named Tanu, who is pursuing MBBS and is a friend of Bhati.
On May 1, Tanu went to a dhaba and informed Kunal that Himanshu wanted to meet him. After Kunal got into their car, they restrained him, tied his limbs, and placed him in a suitcase. They then took him to Himanshu’s flat in Jaypee Wishtown in Noida, where they fatally assaulted him.
Manoj and his accomplices then transported Kunal’s body in a car to Bulandshahr, where they threw it in a canal. Over the next five days, Manoj visited his aunt’s house regularly, ostensibly to assist in the search for his cousin. Unbeknownst to Kunal’s family, the murderers were in their midst.
Kunal’s father, Krishna Kumar, expressed shock, stating, “Manoj is from our family only. That is a bigger tragedy. Manoj and Himanshu came regularly to our home after Kunal went missing. They were pretending to help us. I had no clue that the murderers of my child were sitting with me, eating with us.” He added that Manoj and Himanshu even visited the family again after the police recovered Kunal’s body, further highlighting the deception.
Krishna Kumar also spoke about Kunal’s aspirations, saying, “He was very good in his studies. He wanted to become an IAS officer…”
Earlier, the Noida police had relieved the station house officer of the Beta-2 police station of his duties due to negligence, following allegations from the boy’s family that police inaction had contributed to his death.
“A total of 11 teams were formed… During interrogation, the accused admitted to the crime…They saw a movie named HIT, from which they learned tricks like how to fabricate and destroy the evidence and misguide the police. They changed the sticker on the vehicle, changed their dresses, and removed fingerprints from the body, to dispose of the mobile phone,” said Babloo Kumar, Additional Police Commissioner (HQ).