A 13-year-old boy kidnapped three days ago from Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district for a ransom of ₹2 crore was found dead on Sunday, police said.
The boy was murdered and three persons, who committed the crime despite receiving ₹8 lakh ransom from his family, have been arrested, police said.
The accused possibly killed the minor as the victim had recognised one of them as an acquaintance of his father, they said.
“The body of the boy, who was the son of a local transporter, was found floating in Bargi dam canal near Bichua village, located around 20 km from here,” city Superintendent of Police Alok Sharma said.
A piece of cloth was found wrapped around the boy’s neck, he said.
‘Victim strangulated’
“It is suspected that the boy was strangulated with a piece of cloth before the body was dumped into the canal,” the officer said.
The victim was kidnapped from Dhanvantari Nagar area here on Thursday when he went to buy some items from a shop near his home, he said.
Later, his mother and father got ransom calls for ₹2 crore and the callers warned them not to approach police, he added.
Superintendent of Police Sidharth Bahuguna said Rahul alias Monu Vishwakarma (30), whom the child recognised as his father’s acquaintance, Malay Rai (25) and Karan Jaggi (24) were arrested for the crime.
Vishwakarma and Jaggi are history-sheeters, with the former having five criminal cases, including that of loot and theft, while the latter had seven cases, including that of extortion and sexual assault, registered against them.