Bhadrak, Dec. 10: A six-year-old boy, whom a group of six people had kidnapped from Nanga Mohalla for ransom, was today found dead in a gunny bag kept in the house of one of his abductors.
Preliminary investigations suggested that the victim had died due to strangulation or suffocation. His hands and legs were tied and mouth gagged.
A senior police officer said the deceased, Sk Sanwar, had been missing since yesterday afternoon. He said the goons had kidnapped Sanwar, a Class-II student, when he was playing in front of his house. A few hours later when the kid did not return home, his family members started searching for him but failed to trace him. Later in the evening, they received a phone call that was followed by an SMS asking them to pay Rs 6 lakh as ransom for the release of the boy.
The deceased's father, Sk Iddu, lodged an FIR. Following this, the cops traced the call and detained six persons, including Sk Qadir, from whose house the body was found. The suspects are neighbours of the deceased, and some are also related to him. Qadir is said to have confessed to the crime. When the police went to Qadir's house to recover the boy, they found him dead.
The cops detained six persons - three youths and three minors - for questioning.
Shortly after the news spread, local residents today damaged property in Qadir's house at Nanga Mohalla. However, the cops foiled the mob's attempt to torch the house.
The inquest of the body was carried out in presence of the magistrate and the local tehsildar. A post-mortem was also carried out.
Three platoons of police were deployed in the area.
Sub-divisional police officer Sudhakar Jena said: "The accused had made a demand of Rs 6 lakh as ransom after kidnapping the boy. The victim's father is a hawker. It is suspected that the kid was either throttled to death or he died of suffocation as they had tied his hands, legs and mouth. We are waiting for the autopsy report."<>"The accused had hatched the conspiracy to kidnap the boy after watching crime serials on television," he said.
