A Delhi Court recently convicted a man named Ishtiaque Ali for the abduction and killing of a Delhi University student in 2018 for a ransom of ₹50 lakh. Additional Sessions Judge (FTC), South-West District Dwarka Courts, New Delhi, Swati Gupta found Ishtiaque Ali guilty of offences committed under Sections 364A, 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, relating to abduction for ransom, murder and causing disappearance of evidence. The court is yet to decide on the sentencing of the convict.
The case relates to the abduction and murder of a 21-year-old B.Com student, Ayush Nautiyal, in March 2018, whose semi-decomposed body was found dumped in a drain in Dwarka Sector-13, Delhi. The postmortem of the body revealed that the victim was killed using a blunt object, which, in this case, was a hammer. Notably, the culprit and the victim were known to each other and were seen hanging out together at a McDonald’s outlet near the crime scene, a day before the victim disappeared.
After examining the evidence adduced and the facts and arguments presented by the prosecution, the court said that the prosecution proved all three charges against Ishtiaque Ali beyond a reasonable doubt. The court noted that Ali abducted Ayush and demanded ₹50 lakh from his father. Even after killing Ayush, Ali made his father believe that his son was alive and would be freed on receiving the ransom amount.
“Blood samples taken from the scene of the crime contain the DNA of the deceased. Burnt laptop remnants of the laptop of deceased were recovered, at the instance of the accused. Clothes of the accused recovered at the instance of the accused are also found to contain DNA matching with the DNA of the deceased…The chain of circumstances is sufficient to prove the charge of S. 302 IPC against the accused,” the court stated.
“Blood sample collected from the Alto car of the deceased bearing no. DL-2CAL-2553 contain the DNA of the deceased. The said Alto car, which was used to dump the body, was also recovered at the instance of the accused,” the court said.
“…it is held that from the circumstances established above, prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offences for which he is charged, i.e. Sections 364A/302/201 IPC,” the judge noted in the judgment passed on May 30, 2026, accessed by OpIndia.
The defence countered the prosecution’s case, alleging that there were lapses in the police investigation. However, the court rejected the defence’s allegation, observing that the prosecution only needed to prove the case “beyond a reasonable doubt” and not “beyond all doubts”. The court said that the evidence adduced by the prosecution was enough to prove the guilt of the accused.
“In this regard, it is noteworthy that despite the best efforts of investigating officers, there may sometimes be slight lapses in investigation. However, an accused should not be allowed to go scot free merely on account of some lapses in the investigation. It is settled law that every faulty investigation or padding in evidence cannot, by itself, lead to total demolition of the prosecution’s case if it can otherwise stand ignoring these fallacies. Mere lapses in investigation, if any, cannot be the basis of acquitting the accused when sufficient evidence is available to nail him,” the court stated.
Background of the case
According to the facts of the case, the Nautiyal, who studied at Ram Lal Anand College of the University of Delhi, left his house on March 22, 2018 and never returned. He told his family that he was going to attend a college fest and would return late. He left the house carrying a bag containing his laptop.
Around 7:45 pm, Ayush Nautiyal’s father, Dinesh Chandra, received an SMS sent from his son’s phone telling him to check WhatsApp. When he checked WhatsApp, he saw a photograph showing his son blindfolded with his hands and legs tied. The photo was sent with a message demanding a ₹50 lakh ransom and a warning not to disclose anything to his relatives or the police.
After receiving the messages, the victim’s father informed the police and filed a complaint. Based on his complaint, an FIR was filed at Palam Village police station. The police sprang into action and put the victim’s phone on surveillance and obtained the Call Detail Record (CDR) of his phone number.
While the police were trying to track the victim’s location, his father received another message on his phone on March 24, 2018, asking if he had arranged the ransom amount. When the father replied that he could arrange only ₹10 lakh, the concerned person asked him to arrange ₹50 lakh and gave him a deadline of March 26, 2018. On March 24, 2018, the father negotiated the ransom amount down to ₹12 lakh.
The father of the victim reached the location set by the culprit to drop the ransom amount. Initially, he asked the victim’s father to drop the ransom amount at Uttam Nagar, Najafgarh Nala. Later, he asked him to drop the money in a garbage can near Anupam Restaurant in Munirka, Vasant Vihar, Delhi. Police raiding parties were deployed at both locations; however, no one came to collect the money at either of the locations.
On March 28, 2018, a highly decomposed dead body of a male wrapped in a green polythene bag was recovered from a drainage canal (nala) behind the Metro View Apartments in Sector-13, Dwarka. The father identified the dead body as that of his son, Ayush Nautiyal. The father also identified the spectacles lying near the body as those belonging to his son.
An examination of the CCTV footage of the nearby areas revealed that the victim was spotted at a McDonald’s outlet in Dwarka Sector-14 with a bearded man. The police accessed the Gmail and Facebook accounts of the victim and analysed the photographs. After the examination, the police found that the bearded man accompanying the victim at the McDonald’s outlet was Ishtiaque Ali, Mohan Garden, Uttam Nagar, Delhi.
Upon interrogation by the police, Ali confessed to having killed Ayush Nautiyal and burning his laptop. He said that he met the victim through the Tinder App. The police recovered incriminating material, including the hammer used to kill Ayush, at the direction of Ali. The police also found Ali’s Alto car, parked outside his house, which was used by him to dump Ayush’s body. Ali was tried for the abduction and killing of Ayush and was found guilty by the court.
