Tinder date costs Jaipur ‘crorepati’ trader his life

When 27-year-old trader Dushyant Sharma faked being a 'crorepati' to woo a girl on online dating app 'Tinder', he never suspected it would ultimately cost him his life. Sharma's body was found in a suitcase that was dumped at Kukas alongside the Jaipur-Delhi highway on May 3 night.

A resident of Jhotwara area and father of a two-year-old boy, the trader was allegedly killed by the girl who he believed was dating him. In reality, the girl -- Priya Seth (27) -- was the kingpin of a high-profile rape and blackmailing racket, and had been fooling around with Sharma for the past three months with an eye on his bank account, said the Jhotwara police.

Priya, who was out on bail after being arrested for threatening to implicate a businessman in a false rape case in March 2018, was nabbed within 10 hours of the murder coming to light. Her live-in partner Dikshant Kamra (20), an aspiring model and director, and friend Lakshya Wallia (21), both natives of Sriganganagar, too were arrested for the murder.

Tracking the 'blind murder' led the police to raid a flat on the fourth floor of a posh apartment in the city's Bajaj Nagar Enclave on Friday. The police said Sharma was held captive by Seth in her apartment and was stabbed to death once his father deposited a ransom of Rs 3 lakh for the safe release of his son.

"Sharma was eliminated despite receiving part of the ransom because the killers feared he had come to know much about them and might expose them," said Jhotwara SHO Guru Bhupendra Singh. He added, "Sharma introduced himself as one Vivan Kohli, a native of New Delhi, and lied that he was the chairperson of a sprawling conglomerate with an annual turnover of Rs 25 crore."

At 9.30 pm on Wednesday, Sharma left his house in his father's car and arrived at Priya's flat in Bajaj Nagar Enclave. Sharma was a teetotaller, but he took with him a bottle of expensive whisky to impress Priya, whom he had met just twice before. Dikshant and Lakshya were already hiding in one of the rooms in the flat.

As soon as Sharma entered the flat, the trio, who were under the influence of cocaine, held him captive and slammed his face against the wall before tying him up with wire. They demanded he call his friends and arrange Rs 10 lakh. It was then Sharma told them the truth -- that he was not a 'crorepati' but a small-time middleman in the construction industry.

"Priya checked his documents to be sure and realised that he was not Kohli but indeed a local trader with only a few thousand in his bank account," the SHO said.

At 10am on Thursday, Priya made a ransom call to the victim's father Rajeshwar and demanded Rs 10 lakh. But the father said he could only arrange Rs 3 lakh at such short notice. Once the father deposited the money in Sharma's account, the trio began to panic, realising that Sharma was a local and thought he might inform the police once he walked out of the flat.

The trio first tried to strangulate him and then stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife on Priya's bed. "After the murder, Priya washed her hands and went to the nearest ATM to withdraw Rs 20,000 from Sharma's account. She bought a suitcase also," said a police officer.

The accused then packed Sharma's body in the trunk of his own car, drove to Kukas on the city outskirts and dumped his body at 2pm. The same evening Priya duped another businessman. She claimed that she did not flee Jaipur as her astrologer had warned her that she would have to go to jail.