Rohit Kumar

Patna, May 5: Rohit Kumar was not just a good friend and distant relative of Vishal, who ultimately turned out to be his killer, they were perhaps also the best of buddies with both planning excursions and trips together.

A day after Vishal and his friend Anand were arrested for allegedly kidnapping and then murdering the 15-year-old DAV Khargaul student in cold blood, police sources said Rohit and Vishal shared a great rapport.

On Wednesday, as the police pulled out Rohit’s body from the borewell in Khagaul, his mobile phone, stashed away inside the pocket of his trousers, started ringing.

“The boys forgot to take the mobile phone of Rohit before dumping his body into the well. The phone went out of range. The family of the boy was continuously trying to call him up. The moment the police got his phone out, it began ringing again. It was his family. We chose not to answer,” a senior police officer told The Telegraph.

The officer said the Rohit and Vishal were the best of friends. “We had decided to check the call records of Rohit’s mobile number. On April 21, the duo had planned to go for an outing at the Eco Park and then catch a movie. The messages were sent by Rohit to a phone number which was later found registered in the name of Vishal’s relative. Vishal was using three different mobile phones and one of them had that very number,” the officer said.

In addition to this, on Sunday, the day when Rohit went missing after attending his IIT-JEE coaching classes, as many as 40 text messages were sent by Rohit to different numbers. “The maximum messages were sent to Vishal about their meeting and plans. The messages were sent between 9.30am and 2.30pm. This means that the boy, during his coaching classes, was continuously sending messages to Vishal. Rohit trusted Vishal for everything. The messages are evidence of that,” the officer said.

Both Vishal and Anand had planned to abduct Rohit, kill him immediately and then ask for a ransom of at least Rs 10 lakh. The boys had planned to call Rohit’s father to a Calcutta railway station with the ransom money.

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