Kanpur boy, 10, sodomised after father couldn’t pay ransom, thrown in river: Cop

The Kanpur boy’s father, a driver, said he told the kidnappers that he could not afford to pay or arrange the ₹6 lakh ransom.

KANPUR: Four men allegedly sodomised a 10-year-old boy and threw him in the river after his father told them that he didn’t have ₹6 lakh to pay the ransom for his son’s release, a senior police officer in Kanpur said on Wednesday.

A senior Kanpur police officer said there was a possibility that the kidnapped boy was sexually assaulted by the four accused before being dumped in the river (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The four men, who kidnapped the boy and threw him into the Ganga to die, have been arrested, Joint commissioner of police, Anand Prakash Tiwari said. The four were identified as Ballu, Amit, Saghir and Ameen. Police said divers were still looking for any trace of the boy in the river.

“There is a possibility that the boy was sexually assaulted before he was thrown in the river. Police are investigating,” Tiwari said, citing the confessional statement of the accused.

The boy was kidnapped on Monday when he had gone out to play on Monday evening and didn’t return. His father, a driver, received the ransom call at midnight. They wanted ₹6 lakh.

“I told them I could not pay or arrange such a big sum,” the father said. He immediately informed the police about his son’s kidnapping and the ransom call.

Police identified four suspects through the phone number used by the kidnappers and also obtained CCTV footage that showed the boy being taken away on a two-wheeler outside a grocery shop by Amit.

The four were residents of the same locality as their victim.

During interrogation, the four allegedly told the police that after his father expressed his inability to pay the ransom, they sodomised the boy and an hour later, threw him into the river.

Police said the provincial armed constabulary (PAC) has been deployed in the cantonment’s Maikupurwa to ensure peace.