Close to two years after the abduction and murder of 15-year-old Abhay Modani in Hyderabad, a city court awarded life imprisonment to the three accused, who were nabbed in the case.
"Justice has been done to my son. No one can bring back my son. But, the punishment will prove to be a deterrent for other young men, to stay away from crime," Abhay’s father was quoted as saying.
Abhay left his house in Sree Colony of Shahinayatgunja at around 5 pm on March 16, 2016, to get idlis for his family members. He rode a two-wheeler, bought the idlis and came back close to his house. However, he never returned home.
In 2016, Abhay's body was found abandoned near Alpha Hotel in Secunderabad, stuffed in a TV packaging box. His hands were tied with a rope.
The police said that he was not beaten and did not have any injuries. The cause of his death was suffocation. His mouth was sealed with a thick tape, which eventually took his life.
At the time, police arrested Pondara Ravi (21), Sheshu Kumar (20) and Namburi Mohan (23), all natives of Andhra Pradesh, who had made a ransom call to Abhay’s parents.
The City Commissioner’s Task Force nabbed the accused based on CCTV footage and tracing their call location.
The police said the trio might have killed the victim unknowingly as they plastered the victim with tapes.
Police had initiated investigation after an FIR was registered when parents of Abhay informed the police that he had gone missing that evening.
The accused told the police that they dreamt of being in the film industry and were inspired by Telugu movie, Oka Romantic Crime Katha which they watched two days before the incident.
Prime accused Sheshu Kumar had befriended the victim from the last six months as he worked as a domestic help in the same neighbourhood. Upon knowing Abhay’s father was an industrialist, he picked him as his target.
All the accused knew each other since 2014 as they worked for the same company.