Four year-old kidnapped for ransom, murdered in west Delhi

A ransom call was received at a grocery shop around 9.30 am on Tuesday wherein the accused demanded Rs 5 lakh for the safe release of the girl, Veer said, adding that the childs father is a street vendor.

A man allegedly kidnapped the 4-year-old daughter of his neighbour in west Delhi's Moti Nagar and killed her, police said on Tuesday. The 30-year-old accused, identified as Ajit Kumar, who works as a loader, was arrested on Tuesday evening, they said.

Kumar, who himself was part of the search team, had demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh for releasing the child, a day after kidnapping her while she was playing outside her home, according to the police.

The girl's mother approached the local police station on Monday evening when she was unable to find her daughter, they said.

A case under section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at about 11.30 pm and various teams were formed to search the missing girl. ''The CCTV cameras of the area were checked. Hue and cry notices were sent and all other required steps were taken,'' Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Vichitra Veer said. A ransom call was received at a grocery shop around 9.30 am on Tuesday wherein the accused demanded Rs 5 lakh for the safe release of the girl, Veer said, adding that the child's father is a street vendor. ''Technical surveillance was mounted, on basis of which suspicion arose on Kumar. He was grilled and confronted with electronic evidence after which he broke down and confessed to the crime,'' Veer said. Another police officer said, interestingly, Kumar joined the search team that comprised the girl's family members and police. The needle of suspicion bore on him after the police found that the suspect used different sim cards for making the ransom calls from his mobile phone and traced them to Kumar, the officer said, adding that the sim cards were obtained by him from one of his relatives.

During interrogation, the accused told the police that he had allegedly killed the girl and kept the body in a polybag.

The dead body has been recovered from Kumar's house and shifted to mortuary for postmortem, another officer said.

He said Kumar has been arrested and he is being interrogated further to ascertain the sequence of events that led to the girl's murder.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)