PRAYAGRAJ, August 31 (HS): Following a four-day search operation along the Mirzapur-Koraon border, police discovered the body of 12-year-old Ankit, who was abducted and killed in Prayagraj's Andawa in the trans-Ganga area last week. The search operation kicked off after the four accused were detained earlier in the case and confessed their crime during the rigorous interrogation process. Ankit, the 12-year-old son of auto driver Mool Chandra, a resident of Andawa under Sarai Inayat police station in Prayagraj's trans-Ganga area, was abducted on August 19, but the police's fruitless search for him began only two days later, on August 21, according to people familiar with the situation.

On August 27, a kidnapper called Ankit's mother and demanded that Moolchand, Ankit's father, should bring Rs. 30 lakh as ransom for Ankit's safe return to the Naribari area of the trans-Yamuna. Mool Chand immediately alerted the police, who placed the phone number under surveillance and ultimately traced it to the Koraon area, where two brothers, Arjun and Bheem, were apprehended. Ankit was murdered and his body was dumped in the Dramanganj area of Mirzapur district, which borders Prayagraj's Koraon area. Pushpraj and Deepak were also implicated as co-conspirators in the case by the couple. They were also apprehended by police in separate raids on Tuesday.

The abductors brought Ankit to Deepak's residence in Pachehta village in Koraon, where he was strangled to death subsequently in the forest region, according to Abhishek Kumar Agarwal, superintendent of police (SP) of Trans-Ganga. “They threw the body far into the forest, where it could be found after more than four days. Ankit was in class five, the eldest of three siblings,” he added. In the parting shot, he revealed that the victim was targeted after learning that his father, Mool Chand, had sold one of his properties in the village and gained Rs. 70 lakh from the deal.

HS/Abhishek Awasthi