Kidnapped boy’s body thrown in Amritsar canal; neighbour arrested

Police say the victim is son of a mason in Amritsar; the body of boy had not been recovered till the time of filing of this report; the neighbour has been arrested

Amritsar A day after being kidnapped for ₹3.5 lakh ransom, an 11-year-old boy, Ranjan, was strangulated to death and his body thrown into a canal after being packed into a gunny bag on Wednesday morning. The victim is son of a mason, Gulab Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh, who works in the city. Police have launched a search operation in the canal to find the body.

Amritsar police say the body of boy was thrown into the canal after the neighbour, who had been arrested, strangulated him. (HT Photo)

A close friend, Nandan, 28, of Ranjan’s elder brother Deepak, has been arrested for the crime with police claiming that Nandan had held the victim hostage at his house on Tuesday evening.

“After the kidnapping, Nandan visited the victim’s family and pretended to help in searching for the kid. Nandan stayed at Ranjan’s home on Tuesday night. About 12.30am, when Ranjan’s family had gone to Amritsar railway station to find their son, Nandan called them from an unknown number and demanded ₹3.5 lakh ransom,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP-investigation) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar.

He said, “On Wednesday, the family approached the police. A case was registered and a search was launched. Nandan also remained with the police during the search. When the family disclosed that they had got a ransom call on Tuesday late night, our technical team took over, and Nandan emerged as a suspect.”

He added, “On questioning, Nandan confessed to having strangulated the child to death at around 7am on Wednesday. After killing the boy, the accused threw his body into Sultanwind canal. We have called divers from Harike Pattan to find the body.”

Nandan has been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC at Sultanwind police station.