Patna, May 2: An 11-year-old boy was allegedly abducted and then murdered by a middle-aged man who lived in the same locality and knew him very well, for no apparent reason other than money.
The body of Rishikesh Kumar alias Rishabh, a student of Class IV at Mount Bathenic Public School, located at D Sector of Kankerbagh, was recovered from a well at Pothi village of Masauri, some 25km from Patna, early this morning. Vijay alias Bittu, a middle-aged history-sheeter, has been arrested for the murder and, according to police, has confessed to the crime.
The boy’s father, Vimal Kumar, a contractor by profession, stays with his family in their two-storied house at East Indra Nagar, a middle-class locality in Kankerbagh. Bittu stays a few houses away.
As news spread of the boy’s death today, an angry mob of local people ransacked Bittu’s home and assaulted his mother, Usha Devi. (See Metro)
Police sources said Bittu told them he lured Rishikesh away when the boy was on his way back from school on Monday afternoon, caught a train to Masauri where he, aided by a cousin, strangulated the child and dumped him in a well. The cousin, a resident of Khemnichak in Patna, has been arrested.
The sources said Bittu returned home after killing the boy. Around 9pm, he made a ransom call to Vimal Kumar and asked him to cough up Rs 10 lakh for his son’s freedom.
“We have been living here for a long time without any problem. Bittu lives only a few metres away from our house. He has been in and out of jail many times for crimes such as theft and loot. Some neighbours told me they had seen Bittu talking to my son on some occasions earlier. Around 9pm on April 30, I got a call asking for a sum of Rs 10 lakh for the release of Rishikesh. The man said he would be calling on Tuesday (May 1) to inform me where the money was to be paid. I informed the police who said they would track the mobile number,” Vimal Kumar said.
Police sources said the second call was made around 2pm on Tuesday. “We traced the call to Bittu. Around 10pm on Tuesday, we raided his house and arrested him. He was making the calls from his home. During interrogation, he accepted that he had abducted and killed Rishikesh,” another police officer said.
