5-year-old abducted,found murdered in Pune

Chatushrungi police said Shubh was last seen playing at a Ganesh pandal near his house in Ramnagar ARDE quarters around 9 pm.

They have arrested Parmindar Singh (19),student of a private hotel management institute,and detained his friend who is a 15-year-old SSC student at an Army Public School.

Police said their fathers are former defence personnel presently attached to the Defence Security Corps (DSC),which looks after the security of the these research institutes. Shubh studied in a nursery school in Panchawati.

Police said Sukeshini returned home around 8.30 pm after a puja at a nearby Ganesh pandal and realised that Shubh was not home.

Bhupender said: “Since he was seen playing at the pandal,we started a search for him and then registered a missing persons complaint with the police.”

S M Borse,another ARDE staffer whose son is Shubh’s friend,said: “His mother (Sukeshini) went to many houses in the locality to search for Shubh.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) Shahaji Umap said: “His parents and their neighbours started a search and our teams also joined them after the complaint. We got to know about the kidnapping when the 15-year-old boy told the search team that Parmindar could have done it. Actually,he knew that Parmindar had taken the boy uphill.”

The police then went to Parmindar’s house and asked him about Shubh.

They found Shubh’s bat and slippers on the way to the hill. His body was found at 11.45 pm.

“The death was due to throttling. But he also had head injuries,” said Umap.

Senior police inspector Ajay Kadam said: “It later came to light that both Parmindar and the other boy had hatched the plan. Parmindar is pursuing a hotel management course and also works part time at a fast food joint in Camp area. He told us that he wanted to buy a bike and needed money for that. He first told his plan to a college friend who refused to be a party. He then spoke to the 15-year-old suspect who knew the victim’s family. The boy told Parmindar that Shubh’s parents are well off. Though the plan was hatched by both of them,it was executed by Parmindar.”

Kadam added that the boys decided that younger one would get the number of Shubh’s parents and then they would call them for ransom. “It seems the boy could not manage to get the number and hence no call was made,” he said.

Parminder told the police that he had initially abandoned the plan after his “accomplice” refused to participate in it but went ahead with it when the latter changed his mind.

“Parminder went to the pandal where Shubh was playing,lifted him on his shoulder and went towards the hill,talking to the other suspect on the phone on the way. Shubh must have realised that something was wrong and told Parminder that he would tell his parents. Parminder got afraid and throttled Shubh. He then dumped his body behind a wall,” said Kadam.

Deepak Gawali,a neighbour,said Shubh was a very bright and friendly child.

Accused got idea from news item

Police said Parmindar got the idea of kidnapping after he read a report in a Hindi newspaper about an abduction case in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur. Senior inspector Ajay Kadam said: “Parmindar earns about Rs 5,000 from his part-time job at a fast food joint in Camp area. He wanted to buy a costly bike and wanted money for it.” When he got to know that Shubh’s family was well off,he decided to demand Rs 5 lakh from them,said the officer.