Patna: A 13-year-old boy who was kidnapped from Patna district’s Bihta town on March 16 was found murdered on Sunday, the police said.
The police said that the body of the teenager — Tushar, was found burnt. The police had constituted a Special Investigation Team to crack the case following which the prime accused, Mukesh Kumar, has been arrested from Patna’s Boring Canal Road area.
The arrested individual had sought Rs 40 lakh from the boy’s father, Raj Kishore Pandit, who is a principal at a government school located in Srirampur village.
During the investigation, the police learnt that Mukesh Kumar, also a teacher, is a native of the same village (Kanhauli) from where Pandit hails.
The police said Kumar had killed Tushar one hour after kidnapping the 13-year-old on March 16. After committing the murder, he poured petrol on the body and set it afire to conceal the boy’s identity.
“The accused was under a huge debt of Rs 20 lakh which he had borrowed money from local lenders and opened a private school. As the students did not take admission in large numbers, he went into a financial crisis and finally shut the school. As a result, he was unable to return the amount to lenders. Hence, he had planned the kidnapping of Tushar. He was aware of the financial status of Tushar’s father,” Senior Superintendent of Police Rajeev Mishra said.
Mukesh did not face any resistance while kidnapping Tushar as he was also used to provide tuition classes to the teenager.
After kidnapping the victim, he took him behind a hospital complex and killed him.
“After killing Tushar, Mukesh sent voice notes and text messages to Pandit and demanded Rs 40 lakh as ransom for his safe release. He also threatened that the boy was unconscious and if he was not paid the ransom amount, he would kill Tushar,” the police officer said.
The body has been sent for postmortem to Patna Medical College and Hospital.
Pandit has six daughters, and Tushar was his only son.
–IANS