Mohali, April 21 -- It all began with a casual chat among friends. A female friend of Atharv Dhiman, 19, a first-year B.Tech student at Chandigarh University (CU), had told her friends that Atharv came from a financially well-off family. Little did she know that by doing so, she was putting Atharv's safety at risk.

Abhay, a BBA first-year student who was one of her friends, saw this as an opportunity to gain easy money. Together with his four friends, including Raghav, a B-Pharmacy student, and Poorav, a second-year BBA student, Abhay hatched a conspiracy to kidnap Atharv to extort Rs.1.5 lakh from his family.

But as luck would have it, the day the accused executed their plan, the female friend saw Atharv being thrashed and bundled into...