Man Allegedly Kidnapped, Murdered By Friends; Cremated As COVID-19 Patient

A 25-year-old man in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by his own friends, who then cremated the victim's body by making it appear as if he had died due to COVID-19.

Sachin Chauhan, the only son of a cold storage owner, was allegedly kidnapped and murdered on June 21 by five men in the city of Agra, newspaper The Times of India reported, citing police.

The friends, who were all residents of Agra as well, allegedly acquired personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and cremated Chauhan's body at Balkeshwar Ghat by passing him off as a casualty of the ongoing pandemic.

Agra's Special Task Force (STF) arrested the five — Harsh Chauhan, 24, Rinku, 25, Manoj Bansal, 30, Sachin Aswani, 32, and Happy Khanna, 35 — after authorities received a tip Sunday night. They confessed to Chauhan's murder.

According to police, Chauhan had become friends with Aswani and began to borrow money from him after the former and his close friend Harsh visited a sports club Aswani owned.

Aswani then allegedly devised a plan with Harsh to kidnap Chauhan when the victim refused to pay back his loans that had ballooned to Rs 40 lakh ($53,860). The pair allegedly intended to ransom off Chauhan for Rs 2 crore ($269,000) to his father, Suresh Chauhan, who was a business partner of Harsh's father, police said.

Chauhan was invited to join the group at a party in Khaspur village on June 21, where the friends allegedly smothered the victim to death by covering his face with packaging tape, according to police. He had died due to asphyxia, according to STF inspector Uday Pratap Singh.

The group allegedly bought PPE kits in Kamla Nagar following the murder and cremated Chauhan's remains at Balkeshwar under a fake name, authorities said. Aswani's cousin, Khanna, and his friend, Rinku, collected Chauhan's ashes the next day and threw them in the Yamuna River.

The five were arrested after Chauhan's family became suspicious of their involvement in Chauhan's disappearance and filed a complaint to New Agra police on June 22, according to authorities.

"[Chauhan's] mother had called on his number and someone else picked up and claimed he was unavailable to talk. That was when the parents got suspicious," Agra police chief Muniraj G. was quoted as saying by NDTV.