Pune: A 16-year-old boy was abducted and
murdered allegedly by three of his friends, including two
minors, who had demanded a ransom of Rs 50,000 after being
inspired by a crime-based TV serial.
Shubham Shirke was kidnapped yesterday from Dighi area and
was taken to a nearby hill where he was strangled to death.
The accused then made a call to his father Mahadev Shirke
demanding Rs 50,000 which was later brought down to Rs 15,000,
police said on Sunday.
"Shubham`s father paid the money to the abductors at
around 10:30 PM, but his son was not released by them
following which he approached Vishrantwadi police," said
Police Inspector (crime) Pandurang Gofane.
Acting on the complaint, police arrested the three,
including a classmate of Shubham, who confessed to the murder,
he said, adding the accused have been booked under sections
364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 383
(extortion), 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal
Code (IPC).
Police have withheld the identity of the accused.
"Shubham was a student of Priyadarshini English Medium
School in Bhosari area and had appeared for his class 10
examination this year. Out of the arrested accused, two are
minors and one has given 12th standard examination this year.
One out of the three friends is a classmate of Shubham," DCP
(Zone four) Sanjay Jadhav said.
He said the three accused would keenly follow television
serial `CID` based on real crime incidents.
"They decided to abduct son of a jeweller first. However,
they could not succeed in their plan," he said, adding they
then hatched aplan to kidnap Shubham and extort money from his
father.
"They called up Shubham, took him to a nearby hill in
Vishrantwadi area and strangled him to death. After that they
demanded Rs 50,000 from his father," the DCP said.
The accused then collected Rs 15,000 from Shubham`s
father, he said.
Police said the accused wanted to splurge the ransom
money, Jadhav said.
PTI
