2 held for kidnapping, killing 15-yr-old Rampura Phul boy
BATHINDA: Police have arrested two persons, including a teenager, for allegedly murdering a 15-year-old boy of Rampura Phul after kidnappers him for ransom on Tuesday evening.
Khushant Garg, aka Anmol, who had taken re-appear examination of class 10, was abducted by two accused around 5 pm on Tuesday and murdered, after which they made a ransom call to the family of deceased. Vivek Kumar, father of the deceased, runs a grocery shop.
The accused have been identified as Jaspreet Singh alias Jappy, 18, of Kararwal village near Rampura Phul, and Harsh Gandhi, 22 of Ludhiana.
Accused had come in contact with Anmol through Facebook. The duo had floated a student organisation and Jappy claimed himself to be its district president. On FB, Jappy claims to be a student of a college in Rampura Phul, but actually doesn’t study there, say police.
Bathinda range inspector general of police MF Farooqui said Jappy met Anmol on pretext of clicking some photos to upload them on social media. “The two accused took Anmol to a lonely place on Phul road and murdered him by slitting his throat. Leaving his body there, they came to Bathinda. Around 9.30 pm, they made a call from Anmol’s phone demanding ransom of Rs two crore from his family. As Anmol’s family expressed inability to pay such a big amount, the accused reduced the amount to Rs one crore but family again expressed its helplessness,” said the IGP.
“The deal was finally settled at Rs three lakh and the kidnappers asked the family to deliver the amount in a coach of Kayla-bound train at Rampura Phul railway station at 12:30 am on Wednesday. Since the family had informed police about the ransom call, a trap was laid,” he added.
A cash bag was placed inside the coach of the train. It was picked by a man who was nabbed. On his questioning, it was revealed that he had no link to the kidnappers. Meanwhile, as soon as the cops arrested the man, the two accused alighted from the train. However, in a hurry, they left some photographs inside a bag that was seized from the train. The police managed to identify the duo with the help of these photographs,” said the IG.
“The kidnappers again called up the boy’s family and this time asked them to bring the ransom amount to the Rampura Phul bus stand. A trap was laid and the two accused were arrested at 3.30 am. Their interrogation led to recovery of Anmol’s body and the weapon used in the crime,” said the IG.