Lucknow, July 13: Despite his father paying the ransom, 14-year-old Karan Maheshwari, son of a local businessman, was killed by his kidnappers on Saturday. The kidnappers are still at large.
A Class IX student of UP Kirana School, Karan was kidnapped on July 9 evening from near his Kidwai Nagar home. On July 10, his father Pawan Kumar Maheshwari paid the ransom. But the kidnappers slit his neck and disposed the body near Mahesh Kheda village in Unnao district, said police.
On Saturday morning, the Unnao police found the body. After failing to ascertain its identity, the police conducted the postmortem and buried the body.
Pawan Maheshwari, on Sunday morning, identified the body with the help of the photographs the police showed him. The body was later exhumed and brought to Kanpur.
Investigating Officer Dharam Veer Singh said a special wing of the police was aware of the kidnapping. “Maheshwari has told us that since he had been taking help from the special wing of the state police, he did not inform the local police about the kidnapping,” said Singh, also SP (Kanpur East). But senior officers of the district police denied they had any information till Saturday night.
Saturday night. Interestingly, on Saturday night, Maheshwari had admitted to the media that he had informed the special police wing. But on Sunday morning, he retracted from the statement.
“I dealt with the kidnappers on my own. On Saturday late night, I dropped the bag with Rs 2 lakh as ransom from the Tatmill bridge,” said Maheshwari. He claimed that had not taken any help from the police.
The Deputy Inspector General of Kanpur, Neera Rawat, said the family had made a major mistake by not informing the local police on time. “We were informed about the kidnapping late on Saturday night,” said Rawat.
Kanpur Range Inspector General GL Meena said the fact that Maheshwari changed his statement over informing the special wing of UP police will be an important point in the investigation.
IG Special Task Force, KL Meena told The Indian Express: “On the day of the kidnapping, Maheshwari brought the issue to the knowledge of the STF. We are investigating into the case.” He claimed that the case would be worked out in the next 72 hours. “For further investigation, a team of senior STF officials has been sent to Kanpur,” added KL Meena.
According to Maheshwari, on Thursday around 5.15 pm, his son left the home to play with his friends in a nearby park. “Around 8 pm, my wife called me that Karan had not returned,” he said. Maheshwari, who was at his transport agency office at Chakar Nagar Mandi, went to his residence and received a call on his cellphone from the kidnappers.
“On Thursday night, the kidnappers called for the first time around 9.15pm and told me that Karan has been kidnapped,” he said. The call was later traced back to a public telephone booth in the Rail Bazaar area.
A few minutes later, the kidnappers made a second call and told Maheshwari to wait for further instructions. Between Thursday and Friday night, the kidnappers made six calls. Initially, they demanded Rs 5 lakh, but later settled for Rs 2 lakh.
After the Kanpur police got to know about the unidentified body of a boy that had been buried in Unnao, they got in touch with the Unnao police. Maheshwari was shown the photographs, which helped him to identify the body. Circle Officer of Unnao Sadar Jai Prakash said the dagger used in the murder was found near the body.
This is the second such case reported in the state in a week. On both occasions, the target was a school-going minor belonging to a financially well-off family.
Sixteen-year-old Akshay Bansal was kidnapped in Meerut on July 3. Son of industrialist Devesh Bansal, Akshay was on his way to his Mansarovar residence after attending a tuition class, when he was kidnapped.
On July 9, Akshay’s body was found in Ghaziabad. The minor was strangled to death by the kidnappers.
–Agencies