The three Class XI students, who were arrested on Saturday for kidnapping a sixth grader for quick money, were inspired by crime anthologies on reality television, Ranchi police have found out during interrogation.
The minor boys - two of them from Dhanbad and one from Sheikhpura in Bihar - were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board on Sunday and sent to a probation home in Dumardaga.
Sadar DSP Vikas Chandra Srivastava said the trio, aged between 16 and 17, had identified more targets apart from Arsalan Ali, the son of businessmanNayyar Javed and a student of DAV Kapildev Public School in Ranchi, whom they abducted on July 19, but released a day later in panic.
"The teenagers, two of them sons of a cloth merchant and a contractor in Dhanbad and the third a Bihar labourer's ward, got their idea from crime serials on TV. The plan was to kidnap a rich man's son for hefty ransom. This is why parental guidance is a must in watching TV," the DSP said.
Probe has revealed that the Dhanbad boys, nabbed from Ranchi station, are childhood friends while the cloth merchant's son had met their third accomplice during his matriculation in Nawada last year.
The gang gathered in Ranchi four months ago. "The labourer's son told his family that he was going to join a coaching institute. The other two made similar excuses to come to Ranchi, where the trio rented a room on Lake Road. They used a debit card of the contractor's wife to pay for food and accommodation. The savings account associated with the card had Rs 5 lakh in it and the contractor's son convinced his mother that he would pay back with interest," the DSP said.
The boys bought a second-hand scooter as they planned the abduction. The primary objective was to find a target whose family could pay a ransom of Rs 20 lakh. They decided to hang around cricket coaching schools, where only rich kids train, and finally zeroed in on Arsalan whose dad owns a shop that services electrical equipment.
On July 19, the contractor's son befriended the child at Harmu grounds and offered a lift home on the scooter. On their way, he offered Arsalan a sports bike ride if the boy came with him. The child walked into the trap.
The trio bought six SIM cards and a Chinese mobile phone, which has no IMEI number to allow easy tracking. They made two ransom calls the same night and the safe release deal was settled at Rs 5 lakh.
On July 20, a third call was made and the victim was allowed to talk to his mom while Javed was directed to deliver the cash at Ranchi station. The father informed police who had barely reached the rendezvous point when the kidnappers changed the drop point to Hatia station, 5km away.
"Javed was asked to board the last coach of a Rourkela-bound train, look for a man in red-white shirt on the tracks outside and throw the bag at him once he waved. There was confusion and money wasn't delivered," the DSP said.
The schoolboys called Arsalan's mom and threatened to kill him. That evening, someone banged on their door and the trio thought police had found them. They let the child go.
The three left Lake Road and stayed in Morabadi. The Bihar boy left on July 21 and the others were planning to return to Dhanbad on Saturday.
