Tax official's kidnapped son found murdered near Bengaluru

A 19-year-old son of an Income Tax officer was found murdered after his friends allegedly kidnapped him over a week ago and demanded a Rs 50 lakh ransom for his release, police said on Friday. Six persons have been arrested.

"We have arrested six suspects after they admitted to killing N. Sharath and showed the spot where they buried the body at Ajjenahalli near Kengeri on the city's outskirts," Jnanabharathi Circle Inspector Rajendra Prasad told IANS here.

The accused are identified as Sharath's friends Vishal, Shanth Kumar, and Kiran, and their accomplices Karan, Vinay and Vicky. A case of kidnap and murder has been registered against all the six.

When Sharath did not return home even by night of September 12 after he went out on his new motorbike to meet his friends, his father Niranjan Kumar lodged a missing complaint in the Jnanabharathi police station.

"Though Sharath did not respond on his mobile when his parents tried to contact him, his father received a video message from his son's mobile asking him to arrange the ransom for his release," said Prasad.

"They (abductors) are demanding Rs 50 lakh. They will call you tomorrow. They have been torturing me. You please pay the ransom," a shaken Sharath was seen pleading in the video message.

Prasad said that they kidnapped Sharath on September 12 evening near his house and made him send a video message to his father on Whatsapp to arrange the ransom.

Later, the accused had allegedly strangulated Sharath using a nylon rope in a car and dumped his body in a lake at Ramohalli, fearing they will be caught after they learnt that a kidnap case was filed against them by his father.

When the victim's bloated body was found floating in the lake a few days later, the accused had fished it out and buried it in the nearby rocky terrain at Ajjenahalli.

"The decomposed body has been handed over to the family after autopsy," said Prasad.

Sharat was an automobile engineering student at Acharya Institute of Engineering in the city.

--IANS

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