Durgapur, Feb. 17: Police today reiterated that the missing son of a businessman had staged his own abduction for quick money after learning that he had plotted a similar fake kidnapping of one of his girlfriends a year ago, but dropped the plan out of fear.

Aditya Singhal, a 15-year-old known for his extravagant lifestyle in Barakar, 270 km from Calcutta, has been missing for over a week. Yesterday, the discovery of a decomposed body near the Singhals? residence caused a flutter, but the police later said it was not Aditya?s.

The police said they have found that Aditya had called the girl ? whom he had planned to ?kidnap? earlier ? on her cellphone after he went missing. The phone has been seized and the possibility of her involvement in his disappearance is being probed. She is a student of the same school in Chirkunda, Jharkhand, from where Aditya was suspended five months ago.

Burdwan superintendent of police Neeraj Singh refused to divulge what the girl told the police, but sources said she made a confession before falling ill during interrogation. She has been sent home on the advice of doctors. The police have arrested three of Aditya?s close friends.

?Aditya was a spoilt child and an alcoholic. He also had intimate relations with several schoolgirls. We feel he has staged his own kidnap for quick money but now is scared to surface in the face of media reports,? an official said.

As the probe is progressing, Singh said they are convinced Aditya was not kidnapped. ?We have information Aditya is hiding somewhere in Dhanbad. The police have raided several possible hideouts in Dhanbad, Chirkunda and Mokama in Jharkhand,? the official said.