15-yr-old Pune boy killed by classmates for Rs 50,000

A teenage boy from a private school in Pune was allegedly abducted and murdered for a ransom of Rs 50,000 by three of his friends, including two minors, who allegedly took a cue from a crime-based television serial, police said on Sunday.

“The deceased Shubham Shirke (16) was kidnapped yesterday from Dighi area and was taken to a nearby hill. The accused then made a call to his father Mahadev Shirke demanding Rs 50,000 which was later brought down to Rs 15,000. Shubham’s father though paid the money to the abductors at around 10:30 PM his son was not released by them following which he approached Vishrantwadi police,” said Police Inspector (crime) Pandurang Gofane.

Acting on the complaint, police arrested the trio who confessed to the murder, he said, adding the accused have been booked under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 383 (extortion), 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Police have withheld the identity of the trio since they are juveniles.

“Shubham was a student of Priyadarshini English Medium School in Bhosari area and had appeared for his class 10 examination this year. Out of the arrested accused, two are minors and one has given 12th standard examination this year. One out of the three friends is a classmate of Shubham,” DCP (Zone four) Sanjay Jadhav said.

“The three accused were under impression of television serial ‘CID’. They used to see it and decided to abduct son of a jeweller first, however, they could not succeed in their plan,” he said.

–Agencies