‘Want to show off to friends’: How Shiv Nadar shooter got a gun from acquaintance, paid Rs 35k
On May 18, Anuj had allegedly shot dead fellow student Sneha Chaurasia before killing himself.
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Police said Anuj brought the pistol to the campus and had it in his possession since April 20. (Express Photo)Claiming he wanted a pistol to “show off” before his friends, Anuj Kumar, the accused in the Shiv Nadar University shooting case, had allegedly approached an acquaintance to help him procure one. He paid Rs 35,000 for the gun via a UPI payment and cash, said police.
On Saturday, police arrested the acquaintance, Naveen Kumar Bhati (25) hailing from UP’s Bulandshahr, along with two others — Divyansh Awasthi (26) who is from Gautam Budhha Nagar and his friend Shekhar Kaushal (23) hailing from Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar — under sections of the Arms Act.
On May 18, Anuj had allegedly shot dead fellow student Sneha Chaurasia before killing himself.
According to police, Anuj, who knew Bhati from his school days when the latter worked as an ambulance driver at the institution, had approached him about the pistol in April. Bhati vowed to help him and contacted his employer Awasthi for whom he works as a driver, police said.
Awasthi said a pistol belonging to his friend, Shekhar Kaushal, was at his flat and he would have a word with him, police said, adding that the gun was eventually arranged and Bhati procured it from Kaushal at Awasthi’s flat in Gautam Buddha Nagar district. “Awasthi said Kaushal will give the gun for Rs 35,000. Anuj paid Rs 25,000 via UPI and Rs 10,000 in cash, and was given the pistol along with five cartridges,” said police.
The amount was divided among the three — Rs 5,000 to Bhati and Rs 15,000 each to Awasthi and Kaushal — said police.
Police said Anuj brought the pistol to the campus and had it in his possession since April 20.
According to police, the accused were arrested from Beel Akbarpur, under Arms Act sections 3, 25 and 27, by a team under Dadri police station SHO Sujeet Kumar Upadhyay. A live cartridge was also recovered from Bhati. “They claimed they were unaware of Anuj’s motive as he had only told them he needed to show his friends the weapon,” police said, adding the accused claimed they got to know of the murder-suicide from the news.
Earlier, in a 23-minute video purportedly sent to the college authorities before shooting Sneha, Anuj had mentioned that she had filed complaints against him with the administration, stating that he was harassing her.
On Thursday, police had registered an FIR against Anuj, the university, and three others. The FIR was lodged under sections 302 (murder), 354(d) (stalking) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) at Dadri police station based on a complaint by Sneha’s father on Wednesday.
The university had stated that following Sneha’s complaint, they had taken up the issue “seriously and acted upon it immediately” by placing a restraining order on March 16.
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