Tension ran high in Pattamundai on Thursday after body of a child, who was abducted on Monday evening, was found from river Hansua here.
The 12-year-old child, Raj Kumar, of Praharajpur village under Pattamundai police limits was kidnapped on Monday and the abductors had demanded ransom of `5 lakh from his father Mahendra Jena, who works as a plumber in Dubai. Kumar, a Class VII student of Saraswati Sishu Mandir, was kidnapped while he was returning from a market in Pattamundai. A case in this regard was filed by Kumar’s mother, Puspalata, on Tuesday.
On a tip-off, local police arrested the five youths involved in the incident from Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. All of them belong to Pattamundai. The youths had killed the child and thrown his body into the river at Rajnagar near Bhitarkanika national park on Monday night itself. They have been identified as Sibaprasad Rout alias Papu (25), Hati Prahan alias Sujit (25), Saiprakash Patra (24), Dipu Pradhan (24) and Ashok Mallick, driver of the car in which Kumar was abducted.
They have reportedly admitted to the crime and informed police that after the child’s mother, Puspalata, expressed her inability to pay the ransom amount, they strangulated Kumar and dumped the body in the river. Sibaprasad was the mastermind of the incident.
After the news of the child’s death reached Pattamundai, locals laid siege to the Pattamundai police station accusing police of negligence which led to Kumar’s death.
Some of the agitators also ransacked the house of Sujit. Three platoons of police force have been deployed in the area to maintain law and order.
Police said Kumar’s father has been working as a plumber in Dubai for the last five years and the abductors were aware of the family’s sound economic condition.
Recently, the mastermind Sibaprasad had married a girl of Bijayanagar village against the wishes of his parents and was in urgent need of money to settle down along with his wife. To get the money, he hatched the plan along with his four friends and kidnapped the boy. They then demanded `5 lakh from Puspalata.