A day after the abduction and murder of 17-year-old Ribbu Chawla, police arrested four men for the crime.

Kunal Bhandari alias Rocky (27), a body builder and Rishabh Chauhan (24), were arrested from Paschim Vihar. Sukhvinder Singh (22) and Gaurav Chadha (20) were picked from Haridwar. The police have managed to recover Rs 8 lakh of the ransom paid, the Wagon-R which belonged to Rishabh’s father, and the mobile phone used to call up the boy’s parents.

Ribbu, a student of Class XI at KR Mangalam School in Vikaspuri, was abducted while on his way home on July 28. His body was recovered from a forest area in Vasant Kunj the next morning. The accused, the police said, have confessed to the crime.

According to the police, Rocky, a gambler, was in deep in debt. Rishab, too, was unemployed and the four got together to make a quick buck. “Ribbu had bought protein supplements from Rocky’s shop and they had got acquainted,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range), Ajai Kashyap. Two months ago, they met again at Rocky’s gym, the Tornado Gym in Vikaspuri. On the day of the crime, Rocky, in the Wagon R intercepted Ribbu. According to the police, he asked the boy to join him in the car. When Ribbu refused, they pulled him into the car and drove away.

Police called the operation “a success” amid reports that the boy’s life could have been saved had they acted on time. Sources said though the police knew about the payment of the ransom money, they did not succeed in arresting the men.

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