By IANS
Mumbai : A call centres employee had masterminded the plot to kidnap 16-year-old Adnan Patrawala, the son of a businessman, for a hefty ransom after befriending him on social networking site Orkut but decided to eliminate him after he and his two accomplices panicked when police came on the scene.
The Mumbai Police Tuesday said that the mastermind of the kidnapping and murder of Adnan Patrawala, whose body was found in an abandoned car on Palm Beach Road in the northeastern suburbs of Navi Mumbai late Monday, was Sujith Nair, 28.
“Sujith Nair, who works in a call centre, had planned the kidnapping of Adnan for money,” a senior police official investigating the case said.
The official told IANS that Nair, along with Ayush Bhatt, 19, and Himmesh Ambavat, 17, had allegedly met the victim through Orkut.
Police said interrogations revealed that Nair was planning to escape to Dubai with the ransom money demanded for Adnan’s release.
Nair was arrested along with the others late Monday.
“According to the trio’s confession, Adnan was given alcohol spiked with sleeping pills before being strangulated. It is possible that the trio had no intention to kill Adnan, but panicked after a search was launched by the police,” the official told IANS.
Adnan, the son of an Andheri businessman in suburban Mumbai, had stepped out of his upmarket Lokhandwala Complex residence in Andheri Saturday evening telling his family that he was going to play pool with his friends, but he never returned.
On Sunday, the family received ransom calls demanding Rs.20 million for his release. The Patrawalas lodged a case of kidnapping with the Oshiwara police station.
Police said that the trio allegedly strangled Adnan to death when the ransom demand was not met.
“We are trying to identify a profile by the name of Angel D, posted on Orkut. Several other Orkut profiles are also being scrutinised,” said Kiran Sonone, senior police inspector.
“We are looking for this person Angel D, who apparently chatted with Adnan on Orkut,” Sonone told IANS.
Police said while Nair and Bhatt were remanded in police custody till Aug 28, Ambavat has been sent to a juvenile home.