Patna, Jan. 24: Twenty-one-year-old engineering student Tushar Mehta was abducted and killed after he gave in to a girl’s call for friendship that started with a text message.

The murder of the Patna boy was allegedly planned by his friends last month in New Delhi, after they took his contact number from his brother, Saurabh, his father said.

Tushar, a first year student at Bangalore-based Sri Krishna Institute of Technology, was kidnapped by four persons, including two women, on January 14.

His decomposing body was recovered by the Bangalore-based Amruthahalli police station on January 20, after the quartet was arrested on January 19.

Five days after the kidnap and the murder, the police laid a trap and arrested Waris, a resident of Danapur. The same day saw three more arrests based on the tip-off given by him.

The three others have been identified as Rohit, who works in the real estate sector, his wife, Shivani, and her sister, Preeti. All of them are between 19 and 21 years old.

Pramod Kumar Mehta, the father of Tushar, told The Telegraph the plan to abduct Tushar was made in a matter of just eight days.

“In 2006, Tushar was at a coaching centre for the engineering entrance examination at Kota in Rajasthan where he got to know Waris, also from Patna. After Tushar got through the Bangalore-based institute in 2008, the two were not in contact. I remember that once he had brought Waris home,” he said.

Waris and Rohit were in New Delhi from December 27 till January 3.

“On January 10, Shivani sent Tushar a text message saying she would like to befriend him,” Pramod, a resident of Punaichak area in Patna, said.

Ayushman, Tushar’s friend and a resident of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, recalled the day when the two went to meet Shivani.

“On January 14 evening, Tushar and I went to Esteem Mall to meet Shivani. She had been messaging him (Tushar) since January 10 and he was almost compelled to meet her. We were going to this mall for the first time. We went to McDonald’s where Shivani was with another girl, who she introduced as her sister,” Ayushman told The Telegraph.

“We were planning to leave when Shivani had a private word with Tushar and he was asked to pay them a visit. When I asked if I could come along, I was told the landlord would get angry,” he said.

Tushar left saying he would return in some time. When Tushar called Ayushman After 15 minutes, he said the girls were buying liquor and sounded a little worried.

“When I called him after an hour, he disconnected the phone. A message saying ‘I will be late’ came in. I waited till 10pm, but there was no call. I sent him a message saying I was going home,” he said.

On January 16, Tushar’s father got a ransom call on his cell demanding Rs 8 lakh.

During interrogation it was found that Tushar was first hit by a bottle and then strangulated to death. Then his body was dumped at an isolated place.

Tushar’s college authorities said he was an irregular student and had cleared only three of the eight subjects.