MUMBAI: Two unemployed youths have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a 13-year-old boy from Mira Road on the pretext of going for a smoke, murdering him, dumping his body near a bridge on the highway at Waliv and later demanding a Rs 35 lakh ransom from his mother, who works as a singer in a dance bar.
Kashimira police said Mayank Thakur, a class VIII student, was known to the main accused Afzal Ansari (22). The two often smoked together, said zonal deputy commissioner of police Amit Kale. The other accused, Imran Shaikh (24), a resident of Naya Nagar, is Ansari's friend.
On Saturday, Mayank's mother Heena Singh (27) had reprimanded him after his maternal uncle Vishnu Singh complained that he had caught the teenager smoking with Ansari . The next day, after his mother left for work in the evening, Mayank met Ansari and Shaikh for a smoke. They left on a bike, but when they reached the highway, the teenager got suspicious and pleaded to be dropped back home. The men, however, took him to an isolated spot and stabbed him with a knife and dumped the body, claimed the police.
When he did not return home till late night, Vishnu and Heena's elder son Ajay (15) informed her about Mayank being untraceable. Heena rushed back home and a search was launched for the teenager.
On Monday, Heena registered a kidnapping case with Kashimira police. The same day, she got a call from Mayank's mobile number. The caller told her that he had kidnapped Mayank and demanded a ransom of Rs 35 lakh. She alerted the police who tracked down Mayank's SIM card with Ansari. He was arrested from his home. Ansari led the cops to Shaikh.
Police said Ansari and Mayank lived in the same neighbourhood until a few months ago. Recently, Mayank had moved into a new building and Ansari assumed that his mother had a lot of money if she could afford a flat in Cluster 1 of the upmarket Shanti Park area.
Ansari and Shaikh have been booked for abduction and murder, and have been remanded to police custody by a local court.
