A Delhi University (DU) student was arrested and her juvenile brother apprehended for allegedly kidnapping their landlord’s three-year-old son for Rs 5 crore ransom from southwest Delhi’s Ghitorni near Vasant Kunj on Thursday evening.

The duo confessed to having carried out the kidnapping because they hated the child’s grandfather, who apparently scolded them for petty issues.

The sister-brother duo tied the child’s limbs, gagged him, and locked him alone in a flat for almost 20 hours, before he could be rescued by the Vasant Kunj police on Friday afternoon.

Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Devender Arya said the two had been planning the child’s kidnapping since August and had hatched a near-perfect plot. To avoid being detected, they were communicating with the child’s family members and negotiating for the ransom amount through WhatsApp messages.

“The DU student masterminded the kidnapping as they wanted to become rich overnight. They chose their landlord’s son as their target because they were aware of the family’s financial condition. Also, they were enraged with the rude behaviour of the child’s grandfather, who had slapped the 17-year-old boy three days ago,” said Arya.

Manoj Kumar Lohia, the child’s father, said his son Aryaveer was playing in the lane outside their Ghitorni home when he was taken around 6:30 pm.

Police were making efforts to find the child when around 7.30 pm, the father received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number.

“Itni police aud bheed kyon hai tumhare ghar k bahar. Unko bolo wapis jaane ko warne bacche ko kabhi dhoondh nahi paoge. Police ko bolo baccha mil gaya hai aur jaane ko bolo (Why is there police and crowd outside your house. Ask them to go back, else you will never be able to find your child. Tell the police you have found your child and ask them to leave),” the first message read.

About 15 minutes later, the father received another WhatsApp message in which the suspect asked them for Rs 5 crore as ransom.

“We formed eight teams. The footage of CCTV cameras of the neighbourhood was scanned. A man was seen taking the child away in his lap,” said Arya.

Around 3am on Friday, the suspect toned down their demand and agreed to release the child if R 50 lakh was paid. The conversation helped investigators identify the mobile number through which messages were being sent to the father.

“The number belonged to a 70-year-man who had a small shop in the neighbourhood. We probed and ruled out his involvement and scanned the internet data of the mobile number the suspect was using. We then zeroed in on the DU student, living on the first floor with her mother and brother,” said the DCP.

DCP Arya said her involvement was confirmed when in the last WhatsApp message, the suspect asked the child’s father to send her and his wife out of the house to deliver the ransom money. Police interrogated her and she confessed to the crime and her brother’s involvement. She also led police to the flat where the child was kept.

First Published: Oct 13, 2018 07:38 IST