Body of Teenager Found in Canal Day after His Abduction in Gorakhpur, 5 Arrested

A day after his abduction, the dead body of a youth was found on Monday from Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the hometown of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

In a similar incident a few days back, a youth was kidnapped and murdered in Kanpur.

Balram Gupta, a student of Class 5 and a resident of Pipraich area, was kidnapped and a ransom of Rs 1 crore demanded from his family. After the police were informed, the Special Task Force (STF) was also roped in to look for the child along with the Pipraich Police and the Crime Branch.

Since the incident, police forces of many stations have been deployed as a precautionary measure in the village.

The police on Monday recovered from a canal near the village the body of the boy, acting on information given by the accused. It was sent for post-mortem.

After the murder, four youths from the same village had demanded ransom. The police have arrested five people of which three are accused in the kidnapping and murder while the others are involved in selling the phone's SIM card to the accused.

Gorakhpur SSP Sunil Kumar Gupta said an FIR immediately registered after they received information about the kidnapping and ransom call on Sunday. "On analysis of call details, we picked up a few people and after interrogation we received inputs about the dead body being dumped in a sack near the canal. The body has been sent for post mortem.”

Gupta said the kidnappers first demanded Rs 1 crore in ransom and later asked for any amount of money that was available. "Dayanand, Ajay Gupta, Nikhil and two more people have been arrested till now, two more culprits are still on the run and will be nabbed soon. Prime facie it seems that the culprits gave some sedative before killing the boy, however post mortem report is awaited,” he added.

The father of the victim has demanded strict action against the culprits.

Again slamming the BJP-led state government over law and order, Samajawadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav described the news of the murder of the kidnapped child as "very painful and tragic".

"Despite the constant kidnappings and murders, the shameless silence and inaction of the BJP government is in question,” said the former chief minister in a tweet.