Munger: Bariarpur police took barely four hours to recover Class IX student Aakash Kumar, 13, from Rishikund forest and arrest five students, including one of Aakash's classmates and four other college students, after a long chase on May 3.

Aakash was kidnapped on his way to Government Phillips High School (Bariarpur).

The kidnappers forced him to sit on their bike. "Five students, all belonging to Gopali Tola Shakahara and Sotipur Pariya villages under the jurisdiction of Bariarpur police station, were arrested in this connection," Raj Ratan, the station house officer (SHO) of Bariarpur police station, told The Telegraph on Saturday.

"We recovered Aakash, son of farmer Manikant Sharma, from Rishikund forest. The student's limbs had been tied up when the police reached there," said the SHO.

"Aakash was kidnapped for a cellphone. Some days ago, a costly cellphone was stolen from the house of Rajendra Mandal (a milk vendor), where Aakash used to go to collect milk for his family. The vendor and his sons suspected Aakash's role in the theft. To teach Aakash a lesson, two sons of the milk vendor, who are Aakash's classmates, planned the kidnapping to extort sufficient money to buy a new costly mobile," SHO Raj Ratan said.

"My hands and feet were tried with rope in the forest," Aakash told the police after he was rescued.

"The kidnappers mercilessly beat me up and threatened to kill me with a knife for stealing a cellphone from the milk vendor's house a few days ago. They also demanded a payment of Rs 50,000 from my family to buy a new cellphone."

All accused have been sent to Munger jail under Section 364 of the Indian Penal Code, the SHO said.

Statement recorded

Rishi Kumar, 16, the resident of Patel Nagar in Masaurhi police station area of rural Patna, who was recovered on Thursday night after being kidnapped, gave his statement before the judicial magistrate of Masaurhi civil court under Section 164 of CrPC on Saturday.

He confirmed the FIR lodged by his father. Masaurhi police sent Vikash Kumar, Manish Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar to jail on Saturday.