A 17-year-old boy, who went missing near his house in Fatehabad area of Barabanki on October 14 afternoon, was abducted for ransom and later killed by one of his kin and an aide and his body was found dumped in a drain in his native place on Saturday morning.
The police which had been probing the incident through electronic surveillance later arrested the victim’s kin, Satyendra Kumar of Ballia, and his cohort Nagendra of Bahraich district. The police also recovered the deceased's mobile phone, an iron pan used to kill the victim, a motorcycle and a pair of slippers belonging to the deceased.
As per reports, lawyer Boondi Lal Gautam and his wife who is a government school teacher reside in the Fatehabad area of Barabanki. Their 17-year-old son was pursuing his studies from Lucknow and had enrolled at a coaching institute to prepare for competitive examinations. Due to the short distance between the state capital and Fatehabad, the youth used to frequent his home on a motorcycle.
Meanwhile, his kin Satyendra worked as a mason and started staying in a rented accommodation in the Lakhperabagh area closeby. Right from his stay in Barabanki, Satyendra eyed the victim’s properties and financial status and hit upon the idea of kidnapping the teenager to extort a ransom from the family. To actualise his nefarious plan, Satyendra befriended Nagendra who used to stay at nearby Safdarganj area.
As he frequented the victim’s house, Satyendra knew about the teenager’s travel itinerary. Around 2 pm on October 14, as the teenager left his home on a bike, Satyendra intercepted him some distance away and coaxed him to have a couple of beers and took him to his rented house in Lakhperabagh where Nagendra was present.
After getting drunk to the gills, Satyendra asked the victim to call his family and ask for a huge sum as ransom, faking that he had been kidnapped. When the victim refused, a verbal spat took place. Watching his plan go astray, Satyendra hit the victim on his head with an iron pan causing a deep gash that profusely bled. His aide Nagnedra then strangled the victim to death.
The assailants then put the victim’s cell phone on flight mode, took his body in a sack and dumped it in a drain.
Upon their return to the rented house, they switched on the victim’s phone when his brother Anurag called. Nagendra took the call posing as kidnapper ‘Rafiq’, demanded Rs 60 lakh as ransom for the victim’s release and immediately switched off the phone.
But since the incident had earlier been informed to the police, a surveillance unit managed to get their possible location and dropped the net on the assailants. Based on confessions made by the miscreants, the police recovered the victim’s body from a nearby drain.
