3 min readMar 30, 2026 02:34 PM IST
First published on: Mar 30, 2026 at 02:34 PM IST
In a twist in the ongoing investigation of a failed abduction bid on Aryan Chauhan, general secretary of the Himachal Youth Congress and son of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s Principal Media Adviser Naresh Chauhan, the Shimla police informed a local court that Aryan declined to identify the recovered airgun as the weapon pointed at him by suspects on March 20.
Claiming that the actual weapon used in the crime has to be recovered, police secured two more days of custody of the alleged mastermind, property dealer-cum-contractor, Manish Verma, alias Manu, on Saturday.
However, four other suspects, including former Himachal Police constable Tashi Cheering Negi, mechanic Charanjeet Singh, Rajinder Kumar and Manmohan Chauhan, were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
“We submitted before the court that Aryan Chauhan was shown the airgun seized from Manish Verma’s possession, but he said it was not the weapon used in the crime. Based on this, we managed to get two more days of police custody of Verma. We didn’t seek further police remand of the other four suspects,” a police officer said.
Defence counsel advocate Balwant Guleria told The Indian Express, “I argued before the court that suspect Manish Verma has been in the police custody for five days. Whatever he possessed, the police had recovered. I told the court that 10 live cartridges recovered from Verma’s possession are of 12 bore rifle, which belonged to his late father. That rifle is deposited at the Theog police station.”
In one of the most high-profile such incidents in recent years in the state, a group of men allegedly tried to abduct Aryan, 28, while he was on his way to his hotel in Mashobra.
In his statement to the police, Aryan stated that a group of men intercepted his car when he was on his way home from Mashobra and threatened to abduct and rob him, pointing a “pistol-like object” at him. Aryan stated that he managed to escape their captivity by jumping out of the car and suffered injuries to his leg.
Police later seized an airgun, 10 live cartridges of 12 bore, an Alto car with a fake registration plate, and some mobile devices.
Police claimed that their probe also led them to a home stay on Shimla’s outskirts, where the suspects had planned to keep Aryan hostage while bargaining for a ransom.
Charanjeet and Negi were arrested on March 23, while Verma was arrested on March 25.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu 
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