19-yr-old man held for killing boy in Delhi's Aman Vihar

A 19-year-old man was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and killing a boy in Aman Vihar area here, police said on Thursday.

The boy had gone missing from his house on July 23 and after two days his body was recovered from Kiradi drain in Pratap Vihar, they said.

When the body had gone for postmortem at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, the deceased's father received a phone call from the accused, Gautam, police said.

He told the boy's father that his son was still alive and the body recovered from the drain was that of someone else, police said, adding that Gautam demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh.

The father agreed to pay him the money and reached Kheda area in Rohini Sector 28 but the accused did not turn up.

Meanwhile, police traced the accused's location with the help of the mobile number from which the boy's father had received the call.

"Police apprehended Gautam as his activities were found to be suspicious. He kept on changing his versions and told a different story every time but later confessed to his crime," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Joy Tirckey.

Gautam, the neighbour of the victim, told police that he had kidnapped the boy because he needed money for studies, the DCP said.

He was familiar with the boy and even dropped him to school several times, Tirckey said.

Last year, Gautam had stolen some jewellery from the boy's house but the family did not report it to police, he added.