The victim Pankaj Singh had been missing since October 9, SP Maneesh Mishra said.

The body of a missing law student was found burried in the basement of his former landlord in Girdhar Enclave in Sahibabad, police said on Tuesday.

The victim Pankaj Singh (29) had been missing since October 9, Superintendent of Police Maneesh Mishra said.

His former landlord Hariom alias Munna, along with his family is on the run since Saturday, they said, adding hunt is on to nab them.

Singh had moved to another rented accommodation in Girdhar Enclave.

He was also running a cyber cafe and making sizeable profit, which apparently nurtured greed in the accused, Hariom, who lived in the same locality, police said.

They said Singh also used to give tuitions to students, including accused's four children.

When Singh went missing his younger brother Maneesh lodged a report at Sahibabad police station.

During investigation it surfaced that the Hariom and his wife were pressuring Singh to sell his cyber cafe to them at a very low price, the police said.

The police reached Hariom's house on Monday and found that the basement's floor was renovated, they said.

Later, Singh's body was exhumed in the presence of a magistrate, the police said.

According to the post-mortem report, he was strangled to death, they said.