GORAKHPUR/LUCKNOW: In a shocking incident, a six-year-old Sanskar Yadav was kidnapped, his mouth sealed with an adhesive and he was later strangled by his neighbour’s grandson.
The accused, Arun Kumar Sharma, 20, had also sent a ransom note to the minor victim’s parents demanding Rs 5 lakh for safe release of the kid.
Police have arrested the accused under the charges of murder, kidnapping for ransom, and causing of disappearance of evidence.
Police have also seized his mobile phone and sent it for forensic examination. The victim took tuition from the grandfather of the accused.
Police sources associated with the probe said the accused initially said that he was hooked to online games and wanted money, because of which he committed the kidnapping and murder.
The accused confessed that he killed the boy and locked the corpse inside a toilet, from where cops also recovered his body later.
Deoria superintendent of police Sankalp Sharma said that on Wednesday afternoon, the victim, belonging to Harkhauli village, didn’t return from his neighbourhood, where he took tuition every day, by 6pm and his family members started a search for him.
Tuition teacher Narsingh Sharma later told the victim’s father Gorakh Yadav that he was absent from the class that day.
"The family members found that Sanskar’s books and copies were scattered in a farm field and they also found a letter on a page in his scattered copies about his kidnapping with demand of Rs 5 lakh as ransom for his safe return. The family informed the police which started searching for the boy and detained the tuition teacher,” said the SP.
The police official said, "We asked all the male members of the tuition teacher’s household to write a note in Hindi and found that the accused Arun’s handwriting matched. We are still probing the exact sequence of events."
Sources privy to the probe said that the accused was addicted to online games and his grandparents used to scold him and had refused to give him any money for such games. "He decided to kill one of his grandfather’s students to exact revenge believing that his granddad will be arrested for this," an official said.
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