NOIDA: The body of a second-year Galgotias University student was found in a drain near the university gate on Saturday afternoon, three days after he went missing from the Dankaur area. Police are questioning three of his friends who were last seen with him on Wednesday evening. Yashaswi Raj was a BSc agriculture (honours) student at the private university’s campus in Greater Noida. Police received information about Raj’s body lying near a drain about 800 metres from the university gate at 1.30 pm on Saturday. “A police team rushed to the spot. After identification of the body, cops informed the family about the death and sent the body for a postmortem,” said Radha Raman Singh, SHO of Dankaur police station. Anita Kumari, Raj’s aunt and local guardian who lives in Delhi, told TOI he had gone missing on October 12, (last Wednesday evening). “He spoke to his mother around 7.25 pm on Wednesday and told her he would call her after reaching the hostel as his phone’s battery was dying. His phone remained switched off from 7.50 pm.” “The last time he spoke to his family, he said he was visiting the Dankaur market with his friends. The next morning, on October 13, when the family found his phone still switched off, I reached his hostel, where the college officials informed me that he had not returned,” Kumari said. After that, Kumari went to Dankaur police station and filed a missing person’s complaint. “Police started circulating posters of him. But when we tried speaking to Raj’s friends, they ignored us and said negative things about him. They are not talking about what happened on Wednesday,” she said. The family suspects the youth was murdered and has sought an investigation into six of his friends. Raj’s uncle, Ashutosh Sinha, has submitted a police complaint, saying that they have come to know about a verbal spat between Raj and some boys in the hostel, and two people allegedly threatened and abused Raj. “We suspect the role of six students. Cops should check that and the role of the university management,” Sinha said. Police said there were no visible injury marks on the body, but it appeared two-three days old. “We sent the body for a post-mortem and will carry out further investigation once the report clarifies the cause of the death. We have found CCTV footage from the village (Dankaur), which shows the deceased on the night of October 12,” the SHO said. The footage shows Raj exiting a liquor shop cum dhaba alone. He is seen taking an autorickshaw from Dankaur Kasba, but the auto driver drops him back at the same spot. His three friends left the place five minutes after Raj left. In a statement signed by the registrar, the university said, “It is with our deepest sorrow we would like to inform you the untimely passing away of our beloved student late Mr Yashaswi Raj, BSc Agriculture 2nd year. The university management and the entire Galgotias family stands by firmly with the family and friends for our beloved student in this extremely difficult and painful hour. Every student of Galgotias is like a family member and we at the university feel a personal loss of the tragic death of our beloved student. May his noble soul rest in peace. We pray to the family to give all the strength to the family and friends of the deceased. Om Shanti (sic).”
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/student-found-dead-near-galgotias-university-in-greater-noida/articleshow/94888162.cms