Pune: 14-year-old boy kidnapped for Rs 30 lakh ransom, rescued; three persons arrested

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Police have arrested three persons for allegedly kidnapping a 14-year-old boy and demanding a ransom of Rs 30 lakh from his family in Maharashtra's Pune district, officials told news agency PTI.

The boy has been rescued by the police, they said.

According to the police, the boy, who is the son of a scrap dealer, was kidnapped by three persons on Tuesday morning from Tathawade area of the adjoining Pimpri-Chinchwad township, reported PTI.

"On receiving a complaint from the family, a team was formed and during investigation, it was revealed the kidnappers had taken the boy to Saswad. The kidnappers earlier called a relative of the boy and demanded Rs 30 lakh and threatened to kill him if the ransom money was not paid," an official from the Pimpri-Chinchwad crime branch told PTI.

After tracing the location of the kidnappers, a police team was dispatched. The kidnappers were arrested from Saswad and the boy was rescued from their clutches, he said.

According to PTI, the accused were identified by the police as Tejan Lokhande, Arjun Rathod, and Vikas Mhaske.

The trio knew that the boy's father was financially well-off and targeted him for quick money, the police told PTI.

"The accused wanted to open a hotel and for that they needed money. This led them to plan the kidnapping," another police official told PTI.

Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man allegedly killed his brother-in-law and later committed suicide by hanging on Tuesday in Pune city of Maharashtra, police told PTI.

According to PTI, a domestic dispute is suspected to be the trigger behind the incident which occurred in Baner area.

The accused, Hemant Kajale, hit Dhananjay Sadekar (38) in the head with an iron rod, resulting in the latter's death. Kajale then allegedly hanged himself, an official said quoting the complaint lodged by Sadekar's wife, reported PTI.

A murder case has been registered and further investigation is on, he added.

Earlier, a convict serving death sentence in a 2016 case of rape and murder of a minor girl at Kopardi in Maharashtra was found hanging in his cell at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune on Sunday morning, police said, reported PTI.

Initial findings suggest it to be a case of suicide, they said, adding the convict, identified as Jitendra Babulal Shinde (32), was undergoing psychiatric treatment, reported PTI.

The man appeared to have used towel strips to hang himself from an iron bar above the door of his cell in the jail, a police official said.

According to the police, a prison guard found Shinde hanging in his cell and alerted the other guards.

The prisoner was taken for a medical examination where he was declared dead, an official from Yerawada police station said.

In 2017, a sessions court in Ahmednagar district sentenced three men, including Shinde, to death for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kopardi village of the district in 2016.

The victim, who belonged to the Maratha community, was found murdered after being raped on July 13, 2016 in Kopardi village.

The accused had inflicted injuries all over her body and broken her limbs before throttling her, police earlier said.

(With inputs from PTI)