2 held for city boy's murder

HYDERABAD: A special team of the Cyberabad police on Thursday arrested two persons from Ramnagar in Uppal in connection with the kidnap and murder of a one and a half year old boy from Kukatpally five months ago.
Addressing a press conference at Kukatpally police station, Cyberabad deputy commissioner of police Swati Lakra said that Laxminarayana Chowdary, a resident of Kukatpally and his associate R Ravindra, a resident of Ramnagar, had kidnapped the boy Sai Ashrith on December 1, 2002.The boy''s father Suryanarayana Murthy had lodged a missing complaint with the Kukatpally police the same day.
Even as the investigations into the missing case were on, Ashrith''s body was traced in the bogey of Hussain Sagar Express in Mumbai. The body was wrapped in two newspapers and was kept in a sports bag. As the newspapers were published from Hyderabad, the Mumbai railway police suspected that the body might have some connection with the place.
They arrived in Hyderabad with the photographs of the body on December 4. Ashrith''s parents identified the photo and claimed the body.
Though the police suspected the involvement of Chowdary, a close friend of Murthy, the former managed to escape and was eluding arrest ever since, she said.
Finally he was arrested on Thursday from the residence of Ravindra in Ramnagar. The duo confessed it had kidnapped the boy from Murthy''s flat at Kukatpally Housing Board Colony when the family came to the city from London to attend a function.
Chowdary proceeded to Murthy''s house leaving the boy at Ravindra''s house so that negotiations could begin for a ransom. But Ravindra, who could not stop the boy from wailing, closed the mouth and nose of the boy applying pressure with his hand. He also hit the boy on his head. The boy died due to suffocation.
The accused wanted to get rid of the body as they had lost a chance to extort a ransom and dumped it in the train, police said.
The arrested were sent to judicial custody. The special team that investigated the case
consisted of inspector R Sai Krishna, sub-inspectors P Ashok, P Srinivas Reddy and Srikanth Goud.