Uncle among three held for abducting, killing boy

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad police has arrested three persons on Thursday for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a 14-year-old boy recently. One of the accused is the uncle of the victim, police said, adding the boy went missing on October 29. "We are yet to recover the body,'' said Akhil Kumar, SSP (Ghaziabad). The deceased identified as Harsh Tyagi, who was a student of a leading public school in Ghaziabad was the son of a Murad Nagar Congress leader, Umesh Tyagi. Tyagi is a former supervisor in Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA). According to Arvind Kumar, DSP (Murad Nagar), the boy, a student ofClass VII had left his home around 6.30pm on October 29. "Harsh had told hismother that he was taking his bicycle with him to get it repaired. When he didnot return till late in the night, his family got worried and began looking forhim. They found the bicycle on the road but there was no trace of the boy. Thefamily then went to the police and a missing case was registered the same nightat Murad Nagar police station,'' said Kumar. "Soon the kidnapperscalled Umesh Tyagi and demanded Rs 30 lakh as ransom for the safe release of theboy. They also threatened to kill the boy if the money was not paid. The familymembers told us that they suspected one Devak, who is Harsh's maternal uncle,''said SP (Rural Ghaziabad) K K Asthana.Police then started trackingDevak's phone calls and soon zeroed in on two of his associates Gyanendra andSanjiv. "All the three were arrested. During interrogation, Devak confessed tothe crime. He also said that after kidnapping the boy, they took the victim toGarh Mukteswar, from where they made the first ransom call. But when theyrealized that the boy would definitely identify them if they released him, theytook him to the Ganges and pushed into the river. We have alerted all the policestations downstream, but we have not been able to recover the body so far. Evenafter killing the boy, the kidnappers continued to make ransom calls,'' saidKumar.