Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Minor brother of one of the accused, who was arrested for abducting and killing Congress leader’s nephew Harsh Singh Chouhan (6) in Pigdambar area, was also booked for hiding information about the abduction following which it made the cops’ job difficult.
Also, the SIM card, which was used in the crime, was recovered by the police on Tuesday. Little Harsh was abducted by his relatives Ritik and Vikrant for ransom of Rs 4 crore on Sunday evening. “Someone” also made a phone call to Harsh’s father Jitendra for ransom after that one of the accused took him to Baigram village on Khandwa Road and dumped his body after strangulating the child on the same night.
POLICE VERSION
ASP (rural) Shashikant Kankane said the accused are in police remand for two days and efforts are on to unearth more evidence in the case. Preliminary investigation revealed that the minor brother of one of the accused was aware about the abduction of the child but he did not reveal the same till late night. Kankane said if he had revealed the plot, the accused could be arrested soon and the murder of the child could have been averted.
SIM card recovered from Khandwa Road
Meanwhile, Kishanganj Police recovered the SIM card from Khandwa Road under Tejaji Nagar area on Tuesday. The accused allegedly informed the police that the SIM was broken and thrown in the area after the child was murdered and the body was dumped into the gorge near Baigram village on the Indore-Khandwa Road.
Friend had provided SIM
Preliminary investigation revealed that the SIM was registered with the name of a person from Ujjain. He is the friend of the accused. After preparing the abduction plan, the accused had contacted their friend, who had provided a new SIM card to the accused on demand.
Police said their friend was unaware about the plot. He was contacted by the police and he was called to register his statement. Investigation is also on to know his role if any.
Committed crime only for money
The police claimed that one of the accused is a close relative of the child’s father and was aware of the family's financially sound position and hence he plotted the crime to extract the ransom. Since the accused is close to the family, it was not difficult to persuade the kid to follow him. Once the kid was taken out of his house, the accused handed him over to accused no II. The child was then ferried to Khandwa Road and killed. The second accused was arrested by the Omkareshwar and Kishanganj police from a hotel on the same night. The accused allegedly confessed that they committed the crime for the ransom amount... but later they were scared of the consequences and knew that they could not back out. Clueless with what to do, they pulled the plug on the kid.
FP VIEW
It is unfortunate but it's a truth that wealth can be an unpleasant reason to trigger jealousy among relatives. The accused who is related to the family was probably eyeing the wealth for some time and it was easy for him to take the child out of the house as no one would have suspected him. But it is heart rendering to see how people can kill innocent minors for money. In this case, it looks like the accused are not hardcore professional criminals and hence they developed cold feet after the abduction thinking that once they received the money, the child would have spilled the beans and got them arrested, hence they botched up their own operation in an awry manner and ended up killing a kid. It is shocking when relatives misuse faith to stoop to this level and commit such heinous crimes. In such a scenario, if kids are so vulnerable even with relatives, whom should people believe?
