Man Hires Killer Online To Murder His Father Who Refused To Give Him Money

A man from India allegedly hired a killer on Facebook to murder his 59-year-old father who refused to give him money, authorities said Monday.

The victim, Mahesh Gupta, was fatally shot inside his home in Madhya Pradesh, a state in Central India, in the early hours of July 22. He was asleep when the incident took place, the Times of India reported.

Mahesh, a widower for 20 years, recently received more than $125,000 in compensation after his son who served in the army, Anil Gupta, died by suicide, police said.

The suspect, his son named Ankit Gupta, got upset because Mahesh would not give him money due to his alcoholism and involvement in gambling and other nefarious activities. Ankit was also interested in his father's retirement annuity, Midday News reported.

Ankit then thought of having Mahesh, who lived with him and his family, killed. To execute his plan, Anjit scoured the internet and found a group called "Ajit King" on Facebook. He hired the said group, offering to pay them $1,400 to abduct and kill his father, according to The New Indian Express.

Ankit allegedly made a transfer of $125 into the account of Ajit Singh, the admin of the Facebook group. Ankit and his friend, identified as Nitin Lodhi, later met with Singh at a local train station.

When Singh asked Ankit and his friend about the plan, he was told that it was called off as they could not make the arrangements for his payment. Singh, who was eager to get paid, insisted on knowing the ruse. It was then that Ankit told him about the plan to kill his father, police said.

Ankit allegedly let the killer enter their home at around 2 a.m. after asking his wife and daughter to sleep in another room on the ground floor.

The killer fled the scene after fatally shooting Mahesh, and Ankit locked the house from inside. Ankit their neighbors and the police in the morning that some unidentified individuals murdered his father, according to police.

However, authorities began suspecting Ankit as he was also on the ground floor of the same residence when his father was shot to death on the third floor.

Singh was eventually nabbed at Gorakhpur railway station in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, while Ankit and Lodhi were taken into custody in Pichhore town.

Police have detained the three men. They also confirmed that the country-made pistol and the ammunition used in the crime were provided by Lodhi.