Thaindian News

Chandigarh, March 22 (IANS) They had mounting loans so they kidnapped Khushpreet Singh for ransom, kept him tied in a intoxicated state for 10 days and killed him when the five-year-old accidentally identified them as his neighbours. The brutal kidnapping and murder case that rocked this union territory was cracked with the arrest of two brothers Tuesday, police said.

Chandigarh Inspector General of Police P.K. Srivastava said the two men, Sukhdev Singh and Gurvinder Singh, were arrested from Burail village here.

“The accused lived in the neighbourhood of the victim and had planned his kidnapping to tide over their financial liabilities,” Srivastava said.

Khushpreet Singh, a kindergarten student and son of a dairy owner, was kidnapped Dec 21 last year from near his house. The family, which informed the police within a couple of hours, bemoaned that the casual attitude of junior police officers led to the kidnappers getting away.

The boy’s body was recovered Jan 5 this year near the boundary between Chandigarh and adjoining town of Mohali in Punjab. The victim had been strangulated to death and his face was smashed to make identification difficult.

The victim’s family had paid a ransom of Rs.400,000 to the kidnappers at Kharar town, 20 km from here, in Punjab, but the child was not released.

Srivastava said the kidnapping was a well-hatched conspiracy of Sukhdev, who has been involved in a murder case in the past, but was acquitted later. He made the plan with his brother Gurvinder and a labourer, Nand Kishore, who worked with him.

Police say that Sukhdev, who worked as a public health contractor, conspired to kidnap the boy to tide over mounting financial liabilities. He had tried to do that earlier but could not do so as the child used to be always accompanied by some family member.

However, on Dec 21, when the child was running from his father’s dairy shop to his house nearby, Sukhdev saw him alone and immediately caught hold of him.

Police say that Sukhdev forced a sleeping pill into the child’s mouth and put a tape on his mouth. The two also tied his hands and legs, and kept forcing sleeping pills into his mouth.

Sukhdev told the police that he strangulated the child on Jan 1 night after the child suddenly woke up, saw his (Sukhdev’s) face and identified him. The accused killed the child and and dumped the body at a vacant space near Mohali’s Phase X.

The police was trying to arrest Nand Kishore, who helped the brothers in the crime.

The victim’s father, Lakhbir Singh, said that he had never suspected the brothers who lived just four-five houses away.

“We were not friends but knew each other. I knew that he (Sukhdev) had a criminal past,” a distraught Lakhbir Singh said Tuesday.

The kidnapping and subsequent murder of the child shook the city and many people did not even celebrate the Lohri festival to mourn the loss of the child.

The kidnapping, police inaction and the subsequent recovery of the child’s body led to violence in and around Burail village in Sector 45 here. The area witnessed violence and turmoil for over two days.