Neighbour kidnaps,kills 12-yr-old

The accused,Jeevak Nagpal,who has been arrested,had passed his Class XII a year ago and was preparing for his Chartered Accountancy entrance exams.

Manan had stepped out of his home in Rohini Sector 11 around 7.30 pm to buy a pen. Police said Nagpal,who had been plotting to kidnap the boy for the last 15 days,spotted him.

“He picked up the boy outside the shop offering a lift home in his Wagon-R car. The victim knew the accused,a regular at the Mahajan residence,and got inside the car. Nagpal started circling around Prashant Vihar. After circling thrice,little Manan got suspicious and asked him to stop. When Nagpal did not,the boy resisted and tried to turn the steering in the opposite direction,” Atul Katiyar the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) said.

The steering wheel jammed because of the jerky movements,police said,and Nagpal stopped car. Fearing he would be seen,he strangled the boy. To make sure Manan was dead,he took an iron rod from his car and hit the boy on the nape of his neck.

Police said Nagpal threw Manan’s body in an isolated side lane in Sector 24,Rohini and returned home. He then messaged Manan’s father,Rajesh Mahajan,at 10.30 pm saying that he had his son’s custody and demanded Rs 25 lakh. Nagpal was calling from his friend’s mobile phone,which was issued on a fake address.

Rajesh was in Chandigarh at the time and in panic called up his family,only to find that Manan had gone missing and a police complaint had been filed.

At their residence,the boy’s grandfather,Mohan Lal Mahajan told Newsline,“Nagpal came here in the dead of the night saying that he had come to know of our misfortune. We could never suspect him. He asked if the kidnappers had demanded ransom or if they had made us speak to the boy.”

Police said it was at the family’s residence that Nagpal came to know the police had been informed.

Infuriated,he messaged the father,“You are not complaining to police,but I know your family is.”

The police soon concluded that the boy and the accused were acquainted. They traced the call to C5/50,which is right opposite the Mahajan home.

By then,the accused had sent about 10 text messages to the boy’s father and increased the ransom amount Rs 6 crore.

Police officials said that initially Nagpal said that he was not responsible for the boy’s murder or kidnapping,even when police showed him that they could trace the number to him. After sustained interrogation,he admitted his crime.

Police suspect that Nagpal had planned the cold-blooded murder well in advance and could not come up with a satisfactory answer as to where he was planning to hold the boy captive.

Nagpal had a lavish lifestyle when his father’s leather goods business flourished. When it ran into losses,he started taking loans which had mounted to Rs 2 lakh.

Outside the boy’s house,grandfather,Mohan Lal Mahajan,a retired reader of English in Delhi University,said,“Nagpal used to come here often and play with our Manan. They were good friends and very fond of each other.”