Missing 17-year-old national-level kabaddi player killed over Rs 3,600 in UP

MEERUT: A 17-year-old national-level female kabaddi player, who had been missing for over six weeks, was found dead in a drain on Monday. Police said Anushka Pal was murdered by a fast-food vendor over an unpaid debt of around Rs 3,600. Her brother, meanwhile, claimed she had borrowed the money to fill the Agniveer form as she wanted to join the Army.

Anushka, a resident of Chirodi village in Meerut district’s Daurala area, had been missing since April 16. She studied in Class 12 at a private school. After an intensive investigation, police arrested Shyam Dhanak, 42, who later confessed. Acting on his disclosure, the victim’s remains were found in a drain at Kankerkhera.

Dhanak, who ran a stall for two years, allegedly killed her near a police outpost and dumped the body in that drain a few metres away.

The teenager had shifted to Meerut around two years ago to pursue professional kabaddi training and was living in a rented accommodation in Shobhapur with her younger brother, Anmol Pal.

Anushka was a regular at Dhanak’s fast-food stall which was near her place, police said, adding that she had unpaid bills worth Rs 3,600. Dhanak had been accused in another murder case in the same area and was released on bail in 2024, police revealed.

“She had borrowed money from the vendor to fill the ‘Agniveer form’. On April 15, she left home and did not return. We approached the police several times but they never took the case seriously,” said Anmol.

Meanwhile, SP Vinayak Gopal Bhosale said that the accused had been regularly demanding repayment. “On the night of April 15, Dhanak called Anushka near his shop and again demanded his money. After a heated argument, he repeatedly hit the girl’s head with a brick. She died. He stuffed the body in a sack and dumped it into a drain, before fleeing to Chandigarh,” Bhosale added.

When her family found her phone switched off, they filed a missing person complaint at Kankerkhera police station on April 28. Finally, weeks later, after analysing her call records, cops identified the last person she had spoken to before disappearing.

Dhanak was traced to Chandigarh. Though he initially denied involvement, he broke down after intense interrogation and confessed on May 31. An FIR was subsequently registered under BNS sections of murder and disappearance of evidence. Police have sent the remains for postmortem.

A promising athlete, Anushka had represented her state at national-level tournaments, including Sansad Khel Pratiyogita and Shanta Khel Mahotsav. Her father, Nempal, said she had recently won kabaddi tournaments at Ghaziabad and Meerut. “Seeing her dedication towards the sport, we always believed that she would represent India on the global stage one day... We never thought her life would end this way,” he said.

(With inputs from Munish Kumar)