Lucky’s house in Ranchi. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, July 25: The St Xavier’s College student missing since yesterday was found dead today.

Police recovered the body of Mahesh Gupta alias Lucky Gupta (18) this afternoon from Amjharia forest between Balumath and Kuru under Latehar police station, about 100km from here.

Confirming the incident, senior superintendent of police M.S. Bhatia said the Intermediate student had been killed by his friend Rahul and two others, including Imran, a security guard of Vimlanand Tower, and Balumath resident Sudhir Toppo. All the three are in police custody. Bhatia said Rahul and Imran had confessed to their crime.

Rahul had picked up Lucky from the latter’s residence at Lalpur at 10.30am yesterday. With Imran, they drove towards Latehar on a motorcycle. At Kuru, Sudhir joined them. On the way, Rahul told Lucky that he had been abducted for ransom.

“Initially Lucky took it as a joke. When he realised that he had been abducted, there was a scuffle but Lucky was over- powered and sustained a head injury. The trio shot him dead at 3pm yesterday,” Bhatia said.

Rahul returned to Ranchi later.

Rahul contacted Lucky’s parents saying that his phone was not responding.

“From 5.45pm, they started receiving ransom calls. Sensing trouble, they informed the police,” Bhatia said, adding that the police became suspicious as the first ransom call came a few minutes after Rahul’s arrival in the city.

“We took Rahul into custody last night. Meanwhile, the ransom calls kept pouring in. The caller demanded Rs 10 lakh in a bus but refused to let Lucky’s parents talk to him,” Bhatia said.

A police team rushed to Latehar with the ransom. On the way, two youths boarded the bus between Chandwa and Balumath and the police nabbed them.

Lucky’s father Vishnu Gupta runs a grocery shop, Gupta Bhandar, on Main Road.

FJCCI president Manoj Naredi said: “We have not yet decided to call a bandh or appeal to businessmen to down shutters, but we demand chief minister Madhu Koda’s immediate intervention in the matter. No one is safe in the state.”