Pune Engineering Student Kidnapped, Killed by 3, Including Her Friend, For Rs 9 Lakh Ransom

Maharashtra police have arrested three men for the murder of a 22-year-old engineering student, who went missing from Maharastra’s Pune on March 30. The woman’s body was found in Ahmednagar district on Sunday.

According to police, of the three youngsters arrested for the engineering student’s murder, one is her college mate. The probe revealed that after her murder, the assailants demanded a ransom of Rs 9 lakh from her parents using her cell phone.

Police said the three men kidnapped the victim, identified as Bhagyashree Suryakant Side, for ransom and later strangled her.

“The student was pursuing engineering from a college in the Wagholi area in Pune. On March 29, a male college friend and two others met her and dropped her at her hostel,” a police official said.

On March 30, Bhagyashree went to Phoenix Mall in Viman Nagar around 9 pm, but did not return. She was also not reachable on her cell phone when her parents tried her.

As her family members could not establish contact with her, they went to the college and hostel, but when they did not find her, they filed a missing complaint with the police.

Later, the accused sent a message to her parents demanding a ransom of Rs 9 lakh. The family then alerted the police who zeroed in on the three accused through technical analysis.

“The trio took her to Ahmednagar. They sought a ransom of Rs 9 lakh from her parents. They then strangled her, buried the body on the outskirts of Ahmednagar and removed the SIM card of her cellphone,” the official said.

Following a probe into a financial transaction made into the victim’s bank account, the police arrested three suspects identified as Shivam Fulwale, Sagar Jadhav and Suresh Indure, all in their twenties, according to a report by Indian Express.

During questioning, the three persons told the police about the crime committed by them.

The prime suspect Shivam is from the same engineering college where the victim studied and two others are his friends, the IE report said.

According to police, the accused were facing financial problems and hence they allegedly kidnapped the victim and tried to extort money from her family.

(With PTI Inputs)