Nagpur: In a chilling tragedy in Chankapur area of Khaparkheda near Nagpur, the body of 11-year-old Class 6 student, Jeet Sonekar, was found stuffed in a sack in the bushes on Wednesday morning, 36 hours after he went missing while returning home from school. The body was found after a morning walker’s dog started barking in the bushes even as cops frantically scoured an abandoned WCL quarter.Jeet was murdered within 15 minutes of his abduction by neighbour Rahul Pal and his two accomplices, now in custody, for a plan to demand ransom of Rs 10 lakh from his vegetable vendor father, whom they heard bragging about making money from sale of ancestral land in Pandhurna. After the murder, Pal was instrumental in helping the parents and kin search for the boy for two days till cops, led by Zonal DCP Niketan Kadam, realised something was amiss.Pal broke down during interrogation and spilled the beans. CP Ravinder Singal said the case unravelled a botched kidnapping plot driven by envy of a neighbour, resulting in the murder. Police stated the accused, Pal (25), Arun Bharti (25), and Yash Verma (21), all residents of Chankapur Colony, have confessed to the crime.”The youngsters are jobless and spend time on cell phones. They planned the kidnapping but did not know what to do next,” said Kadam, who was flanked by joint CP Navinchandra Reddy and CP Singal while narrating the case. The horror began unfolding on September 15, when Jeet, a student at Shankarrao Chavan English Medium School in Prakashnagar, Khaparkheda, failed to return home after school. His mother, Neelima, reported him missing after searching the school and surrounding areas.”Pal had waved at the boy at Bhanegaon bus stop. Jeet knew his neighbour and did not hesitate to board the car. Yash was driving it. The boy suddenly started yelling as they drove towards a desolate area. One of them used a handkerchief to silence him while another held him tight,” said Kadam. Police stated the body was dumped at a desolate quarter of WCL. As cops had begun searching for the boy, Pal, Bharti, and Verma decided to shift it elsewhere. On Thursday morning, they packed it in a sack and dumped it at a farmland from where it was discovered.A case of kidnapping was lodged and an intensive search launched using CCTV footage, interviews with relatives, and technical intelligence. The suspects allegedly strangled Jeet to death in Sillewada and hid his body in a quarter in Chankapur Colony initially and later dumped the body in a bush on Wednesday in the early hours. Former vice-president of panchayat samiti, Saoner, Rahul Tiwari stated WCL authorities must take up issues of coal employee quarters, where criminal activities are common.
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