Jammu, June 13: In a double whammy for the family of the minor student, kidnapped and later killed, one of his relative died Sunday after hit by police during protests over the incident.
Sheel Pal - cousin of the victim boy Shalin Gupta- was hit and he fainted during Saturday’s protests at Nai Basti in the city and was admitted to the GMC hospital, official sources said.
Pal succumbed to his injuries in the hospital Sunday morning triggering more protests when people of the area received the body after post-mortem, they said.
People resorted to anti-Police protests and demanded transfer of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jammu and suspension of Station House Officer (SHO) Gandhi Nagar and blocked highway at Nai Basti for over two hours.
Shalin Gupta, a class V student of Air Force School, was kidnapped and killed as abductors had demanded Rs five lakh as ransom for releasing him on Friday.
Two youths, identified as Gharandeep Singh and Devinder Singh, were taken into custody following leads provided by a PCO proprietor in the city from where they had phoned the father of the kidnapped student demanding Rs five lakh as ransom for releasing his son, DIG Jammu-Kathua range Farooq Khan said.
The boy was taken by the accused from a video parlour on a pretext to have a motorcycle ride on Friday evening, he said adding they had simultaneously phoned from a PCO shop asking his father Naresh Gupta (Businessman) to pay Rs five lakhs for release of his son.
The two youths had taken the student to Belicharana area, on the outskirts of the city, and then they killed him with a dagger after he resisted for taking him to a far-off place, Khan said.
Meanwhile, the state government today sought a report from district police chief of Jammu in the murder of the student for ransom and allegations levelled by people that the culprit was released after arrest.
“I have sought the report from SSP Jammu on allegations of people that police had released the accused in the beggining of investigation of the case and later re-arrested him in connection with kidnapping of 10-year old student for ransom here”, District Magistrate, Jammu, Manoj Dwivedi told reporters here.
He said he has told SSP to submit report soon.
The DM said “If the allegation is proved true, I will take action against the accused policemen”.
Minister for Revenue and local MLA, Raman Bhalla, who along with Divisional Commissioner, Pawan Kotwal, Inspector general Police (IGP), DIG Farooq Khan and SSP Jammu visited the family of the victim, assured them inquiry would be held in the case.
“This is very heinous crime. No Jammuite can ever ask for release of criminals. In fact I have asked police to take stern action against the accused so that none dares to commit such an act in future”, Bhalla told reporters when asked about the allegations of the people that accused Divender Singh was first released on his direction and later re-arrested on Minister for Sports R S Chib’s direction.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST