Four arrested for kidnapping seven-year-old Chandigarh boy

Chandigarh, Dec 1 (IANS) Four men were arrested here late Monday for allegedly kidnapping a seven-year-old boy, the police said.

The men had kidnapped the boy, Japjit, here Friday and released him Saturday evening after taking ransom money of Rs.350,000.

'After getting a tip-off, the police arrested all the four accused from Dhanas village here and recovered Rs.50,000 from them. We have also impounded two Chevrolet Optra and Maruti Zen cars that were used by the accused in the crime,' S.S. Srivastava, senior superintendent of police, told media persons.

The police arrested Prem Singh, resident of Kishangarh village, and Sandeep Singh of Dhanas village. Other two accused, Vishal and Sahil, are residents of Dhaska village in Yamuna Nagar in Haryana state, around 100 km from here.

'Prem, who has a criminal background, was the mastermind of this kidnapping. There are nine cases against him in various police stations. Our investigations are on and very soon we will recover the rest of the money,' said Srivastava.

'The accused kidnapped Japjit from near his house in Sector 38 and took him towards Dehradun city in Uttarakhand. Then they initially demanded Rs.2 million as ransom money but later reduced it to Rs.500,000. They dropped the child near Rose Garden here Saturday after getting a bag of money from near the railway station here,' said a police official.