Bengal: 3 held for kidnapping, murdering friend for gaming computer
Three teenage boys were arrested in West Bengal on Sunday after they confessed to having kidnapped and killed their 14-year-old friend in an attempt to get a ransom for buying a computer for gaming. The accused, all Class 10 students, told the police that they strangled the victim, who studied in Class 8 at the same school as the suspects, after fulfilling his "last wish" of having rosogolla and cold drinks.
Body recovered from pond on city's outskirts
The incident was reported in Nadia district's Krishnanagar. The victim, out to buy some items from a nearby shop, went missing on Friday afternoon. The next morning, his mother received a call demanding Rs. 3 lakh as ransom. She reported the incident to the police, and later in the day, the victim's body was found tied in a sack in a pond on the city's outskirts. The police arrested the trio and presented them before a juvenile court on Sunday.
Accused realized victim's mother won't be able to pay: Police
The police said the body has been sent for a postmortem, and they are investigating to ascertain the motive behind the murder. The victim's father died long ago, and he lived with his mother, who is a caregiver, at their maternal uncle's house. The police said the accused may have realized that the woman wouldn't be able to pay the ransom and feared that they might be caught if they released the victim without receiving the money.
75% kids among those kidnapped in Bengal in 2019-21
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data from 2022, 75% of those kidnapped in West Bengal from 2019 to 2021 were children. As many as 22,928 people were kidnapped in these three years, of whom 17,169 were kids. The data showed that the number of children who ran away from home was higher than that of those who were abducted. In these years, 6,217 children wilfully left home, 1,536 eloped, and 198 were kidnapped for ransom.
