SURAT: A debt-ridden CRPF constable kidnapped his neighbour’s eight-year-old son for ransom earlier this week and allegedly ended up killing the kid in a bid to stop him from raising an alarm. The accused Shailendra Rajput was arrested in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar town Saturday.
Police said Rajput – currently posted in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh – had incurred losses worth Rs 16 lakh in the stock market and taken a loan. He kidnapped the child and demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh to repay his debt. The boy, Shubham Rajpal, was the son of an industrial worker and often went to Rajput’s house to play. On Thursday, Rajput abducted Shubham and put tape on the kid’s mouth to stop him from screaming or raising an alarm, causing the child to faint. “Rajput then put the boy in a metal trunk. As per preliminary investigation, the child must have died before 5pm,” said DSP Ankleshwar Kushal Oza.
Shubham’s family reported him missing to police around 6pm the same day. Though Shubham had died, Rajput called the family the next morning (Nov 8) demanding ransom. Cops suspect that by making the call the day after the abduction, Rajput wanted to mislead investigators and delay the probe so that he would have time to dispose of the body. Rajput planned to dump the body in a field behind his house or leave it on the terrace. The idea of misdirecting the probe came from crime shows and movies, he told cops. Rajput had made the ransom call from a cell phone he had found on a train. He had used the same phone to call unknown women in the past months. Police traced one of these women, who said she didn’t know the caller but he wore an armed forces uniform on a video call.
“We then started checking for people in the neighbourhood serving in the armed forces. We identified the accused and upon checking his home, found the trunk in which the body was kept,” DSP Oza said. Police officials found Shubham’s body with the limbs bound and mouth taped. Earlier, cops had checked Rajput’s home twice after the boy’s disappearance was reported, but the accused had kept the trunk and his phones hidden.