2 weeks Ago
Surat: A constable serving with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was arrested by police in Ankleshwar on Saturday, for allegedly kidnapping an eight-year-old boy and killing him. Shailedra Rajput allegedly kidnapped his neighbour's son and demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh to repay a debt. He incurred losses of Rs 16 lakh in the stock market and had taken a loan.
Rajput planned the kidnapping to repay the loan. The deceased, Shubham Rajpal, the son of an industrial worker, often went to Rajput's house to play. Rajput, currently posted in Gwalior, allegedly kidnapped the boy at about 1.
30pm on Thursday. Rajput put tape on Shubham's mouth to stop him from screaming for help, causing the boy to faint. "Rajput put the boy in a metal trunk after kidnapping him at around 1.
30 pm. The boy must have died before 5pm, according to the preliminary investigation," said Kushal Oza, deputy superintendent of police, Ankleshwar. The family reported the boy missing to the police at about 6pm.
Even though Shubham was dead, Rajput called the family the next morning demanding the ransom. Police suspect that by making a call the next day, Rajput wanted to mislead police and delay the investigation so that he would get time to dispose of the body. He planned to dump the body in a field behind his house or leave it on the terrace.
Rajput told police that he got the idea to wrong-foot the investigation from crime shows and movies. Rajput used a phone to make the ransom call that he had found on a train. He had used the same phone to make calls to unknown women in the past few months.
Police traced one of the women whom Rajput had called recently from the phone. She told police she didn't know the person, but he wore an armed forces uniform on a video call. "We then started checking for people in the neighbourhood from the armed forces.
We identified the accused and on checking his home, found the trunk in which the body was kept," Oza said. Police found the body with hands and feet bound and mouth taped. Police checked Rajput's home twice during earlier checking after the boy's disappearance was reported, but Rajput had hidden the trunk and kept his phones hidden.
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