In a double whammy for the family of the minor student, kidnapped and later killed, one of his relative died on Sunday after hit by police during protests over the tragic incident.
Sheel Pal — cousin of the victim boy Shalin Gupta— was hit and he fainted during Saturday’s protests at Nai Basti in the city and was admitted to the GMC hospital, official sources said.
Pal succumbed to his injuries in the hospital this morning triggering more protests when people of the area received the body after post-mortem, they said.
People resorted to anti-Police protests and demanded transfer of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jammu and suspension of Station House Officer (SHO) Gandhi Nagar and blocked highway at Nai Basti for over two hours.
Amid a massive funeral procession, Pal was taken to cremation ground and last rites conducted amid gloom and anger.
Shalin Gupta, a class V student of Air Force School, was kidnapped and killed as abductors had demanded Rs. five lakh as ransom for releasing him on Friday.
Two youths, identified as Gharandeep Singh and Devinder Singh, were taken into custody following leads provided by a PCO proprietor in the city from where they had phoned the father of the kidnapped student demanding Rs. five lakh as ransom for releasing his son, DIG Jammu-Kathua range Farooq Khan said.
The boy was taken by the accused from a video parlour on a pretext to have a motorcycle ride on Friday evening, he said adding they had simultaneously phoned from a PCO shop asking his father Naresh Gupta (Businessman) to pay Rs. five lakhs to release his son.
The two youths had taken the student to Belicharana area, on the outskirts of the city, and then they killed him with a dagger after he resisted for taking him to a far-off place, Mr. Khan said.
