By IANS,
New Delhi: The sensational kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old boy has left several questions about the probe that a top Delhi Police official could not answer.
Investigating officers, for example, were not even aware whether victim Ribhu’s father Sanjay Chawla had paid the ransom amount till the death of the child.
“The family only revealed only some information to us,” Joint Commissioner of Police Ajai Kashyap told reporters here Thursday when asked about ransom.
He refused to comment what action police took to save Ribhu, Class 11 student of K.R. Manglam World School in Vikas Puri area, whose body was found Wednesday.
Kashyap even refused to say why policemen were not present when Sanjay Chawla paid the ransom and why a trap was not laid when the abductors came to collect the money. “I would not like to make any comment,” he said.
The top official remained silent when asked why the phone calls could not be traced when the abductors called Sanjay Chawla several times. Had police managed to trace the location of the abductors through the phone calls, the chances of Ribhu’s safe release would have improved.
Kashyap said in defence: “The probability of the victim’s survival is very less when he is known to the abductors, who kill their captive fearing identification and arrest.”
Police could not lay hands on the culprits though they were informed of the abduction within an hour.
Chawla was kidnapped by Kunal Bhandari alias Rocky, 27, Rishabh Chauhan, 24, Sukhwinder Singh alias Manni, 22, and Gaurav, 20, around 2.30 p.m. Tuesday.
Police were informed at 3.17 p.m. and the accused started making ransom calls to Sanjay Chawla around 5.45 p.m. and made several such calls thereafter.
The accused took Ribhu in their Wagon R Car and roamed for several hours in Delhi and Haryana when police had got the car’s registration number.
“They were on roads and hardly had any stopover. They just stopped to buy snacks and drink for the deceased. The number which we were given was fake as the accused had twice changed it. They changed it before and after the abduction,” Kashyap said.
“And without any specific information, no car can be stopped,” he said.
In general practice, whenever such information is passed to the police control rooms, barricades are erected for checking across the capital and suspected cars are stopped for checking and the occupants are asked to verify their identities.
Police did not know when the Wagon R car left and re-entered the capital.