Rajasthan youth’s murder livecast on WhatsApp

JAIPUR: A youth was brutally beaten to death in Jhunjhunu late on Sunday night. He has been identified as 24-year-old Vikram Punia who was killed allegedly by his friends over some family dispute.


The two accused are learnt to have made a WhatsApp video call to a third person to show the murder attack live, the police said. Punia was taken to the hospital by the police when it learnt about the attack but he succumbed to injuries around 4am Monday morning.

The accused have been identified as Ankit (24) and Sunil (26). Both the accused have been arrested.

Riya Choudhary, SHO,

Mandawa

police station told TOI, “Based on the preliminary investigation, we have found that Punia’s uncle had filed a court case involving the two accused. The two were miffed with Punia for siding with his uncle rather than be with them. They beat him up late Sunday night. We are still trying to find the weapon that was used in the murder. The

arrested youth

were taken to court on Monday. We are interrogating them further.”

Ankit and Sunil have been booked under IPC section 302 (murder). The victim as well as the two accused have criminal pasts. “The youths in our custody have close to half-a-dozen cases of theft, kidnapping etc, against them in various police stations,” added Choudhary.

“We have received information that the crime was streamed live to a third person through a WhatsApp video call but we are still trying to confirm it. Further questioning of the accused will give us the answer to this,” the SHO said.

According to police officials, few locals informed them of the crime. The police on reaching the spot immediately rushed the victim to the hospital where he was administered treatment for about 45 minutes before he succumbed to injuries. “We informed the victim’s family as well but no one turned up at the hospital,” said the police officer.
Read this report in Marathi