TV serial motivates students to kill schoolmate,demand ransom

Five students allegedly kidnapped a junior schoolmate in Malda district, murdered him and then demanded ransom from the victim's father -- all after watching a tv serial, the police said today.
The five studying in classes XI and XII kidnapped a student of class VII of their own school at Bamangola on Tuesday, took him to an abandoned house where they murdered him and then called up his wealthy father to demand a ransom of Rs 10 lakh.
They asked the victim's father to bring the ransom money to a spot at Kendpukur in Bamangola the next day. The father, after informing the police, went to the directed place.

The police arrested two of the boys from there and found the victim's body. After questioning the two, three more students were arrested, the sources said.
The arrested students revealed during interrogation that they had planned it after watching a television serial, the sources said.
When produced before a local court during the day, the five were remanded to 10 days police custody.