West Bengal: Engineering student murdered for ransom by friend in Birbhum

Kolkata: An engineering student was found murdered with his throat slit in a deep forest as his family allegedly failed to provide the ransom amount in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Sunday, official sources said.

The incident happened exactly five days after the revelation that two teenage boys from Baguitati in North 24 Parganas were abducted and murdered for ransom.

Police found the mutilated corpse of the engineering student Sayed Salauddin inside the Ileum Bazar forest in Birbhum in the wee hours of Sunday, hours after the victim's family received phone calls demanding Rs 30 lakh for his release.

The 19-year-old student, also known as Joy, was missing since Saturday afternoon, the victim's family told the police.

The Police were also told by the family that they had received a call from Salauddin's phone around Saturday-Sunday midnight demanding Rs 30 lakh for Salauddin's safety. The caller also threatened that any attempt to inform the police would lead to "dire consequences".

Another call was made ten minutes later. The family immediately informed the Mallarpur police station, which after tracking the tower location, arrested Sheikh Solomon, who is also a friend of Salauddin. After interrogation, Solomon broke down and led police to Salauddin's body.

Police also found empty liquor bottles, and empty packs of food and chips at the spot.

The latest abduction and murder for ransom happened close on the heels of the twin murders of cousins -Atanu Dey and Abhishek Naskar (both 16). They were allegedly murdered for ransom.

Police on Friday arrested the prime accused - Satyendra Chaudhary - from outside the Howrah station, 18 days after he had abducted and killed the two teens and dumped their bodies in the canal along Basanti Highway. (UNI)