GIRL ABDUCTED FROM GHAZIABAD, MURDERED

GHAZIABAD: The 11-year-old girl, who was kidnapped for ransom from the city on Sunday, was allegedly murdered by her abductors. Her body was recovered from the fields in Bulandshahr district on Tuesday, said police.

The kidnappers had demanded ₹30 lakh ransom from the girl’s father, who lives in Sonipat, Haryana, and gave him a three-day deadline.

The girl, a student of Class 4 at a private school in Ghaziabad, stayed with her maternal grandparents since childhood in a locality under Nandgram police station. Her parents and two siblings stay in Sonipat.

Police said they picked up three suspects – Bablu Kumar and Amit Kumar, residents of the same locality where the girl lived, while the third suspect Gambhir Singh is a resident of Bulandshahr. The three men are stated to be in the age group 35-40 years.

“The girl’s family laid the suspicion on Bablu, who happens to be their immediate neighbour. When he was picked up by police, he said that he took the girl with him on Sunday morning as she knew him as well. Bablu later handed over the girl to his friend Amit near a temple in the locality. Amit was tasked to hand over the girl to Gambhir, who took the girl’s custody near Dadri in Gautam Buddh Nagar around 6pm on Sunday. Bablu and Amit had told Gambhir to kill the girl in order to protect their identities,” said Deeksha Sharma, SP (crime).

After Bablu took the girl away from her house, the suspects also made ransom calls to her father in Sonipat.

The police said Gambhir took the girl to Bulandshahr and strangled her in an agricultural field. The body was found on Tuesday afternoon.