The kidnapping-cum-murder case of a 21-year-old Delhi University student has been reportedly solved with the arrest of a 25-year-old man by the Delhi Police. The accused came in contact with the victim, Ayush Nautiyal, through a ‘dating app’ around 10 days before the murder.

The victim’s body was found on Wednesday night in a drain in Dwarka’s Sector 13. Police have arrested the accused, who confessed to killing the student on March 22 after a tiff and said he had cooked up the kidnapping story to mislead the victim’s family and the police.

“During our investigation, we found the victim had met the accused thrice in 10 days before the murder. On the afternoon of the incident, the two friends had met at a food joint near Dwarka Sector 13, where his body was found. He confessed that on the night of March 22, he had a fight with the victim over some issue after which he killed the victim with a hammer,” Hindustan Times quoted Ajay Chaudhary, Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) as saying.

Ayush was a student of Ram Lal Anand College in South Campus. On March 22, when the two met, they had a fight which got aggravated and the accused attacked Nautiyal multiple times on the head with a hammer, the police said.

Ayush had left home on March 22 after informing his family that he would get late since there was a college fest. In the evening, when he did not return till late, his family members called him but his phone was switched off.

After some time, his family received a WhatsApp message from his phone in which the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. The accused had also shared a photo in which Nautiyal was gagged and his head was bandaged.

Police said that the accused constantly kept changing his location and despite laying a trap for him, he could not be traced. During investigation, it was found that the deceased had gone to a restaurant in Dwarka Sector 14 with another man on March 22. On the basis of that clue, the police proceeded in their investigation.

On the basis of a photograph that the police had procured from a CCTV camera at the restaurant, it was found that the man accompanying him is a former student of a fashion institute. Details of students were sought from the institute and subsequently he was nabbed from Uttam Nagar on Thursday.

(With agency inputs)