Engineering student kidnaps and murders schoolboy-ToI-21.4.12

Kidnapper Commits The Crime To Pay Off His Betting Debts

Amalapuram/Vijayawada: Two schoolchildren were kidnapped and one of them was murdered in two separate incidents in the state. Twelve-year-old Gokavarapu Vivek, who was abducted four days back while he was returning from school, was found murdered near Amalapuram, while a seven-yearold boy was kidnapped by unidentified persons in Vijayawada on the last working day of his school on Friday. 
    The body of Vivek, a class VII student, was recovered by police from Korangi lake in Tallarevu mandal near Amalapuram. Dangeti Ravi Chandra, an engineering student who was the alleged mastermind behind Vivek’s abduction, was arrested in Visakhapatnam in the wee hours of Friday after police traced his phone calls to his mother. Chandra told the cops that he strangled Vivek on the day of kidnapping. After killing the boy, he threw the body into the lake and fled to Vizag. “However, he continued to make calls to Vivek’s family demanding Rs 5 lakh as ransom,” a police officer said. Vivek, son of businessman G Srinivas Rao, was kidnapped on April 17. According to police, the families of both the kidnapper and the victim shared close ties. Chandra, who is the son of Vivek’s father’s friend, was addicted to cricket betting. To clear Rs 5 lakh he owed to the cricket bookies, he hatched the kidnap plot. With pressure mounting from the organizers to pay the dues, Chandra chalked out the plan and kidnapped Vivek when he was returning from school. 
    Chandra’s diabolical plot landed three of his friends in trouble. Chandra used the motorbike of his friend Karthik, an engineering student of Pulletikurru, to carry out his plan while he took money from another friend Ganesh. Both were taken into custody based on the confession of Ravi Teja, another friend of Chandra. On Tuesday midnight, one of the accused made a call to the businessman threatening to kill his son. The father finally agreed to pay the amount to the kidnappers at Nallavanthena area on the direction of the police. When the father reached the spot, Chandra sent Teja, who is also an engineering student, to receive the amount. Teja walked straight into the police trap. 
    Meanwhile, a seven-year-old son of a financier and liquor dealer was kidnapped in Vijayawada. Srinivas Chakravarthi said he received a phone call from the abductors demanding Rs 3 crore. The management of Amali English Medium School at Mutyalampadu said the class III student might have been picked up just before he reached the school. Srinivas reportedly got another phone call in the afternoon from the abductors, who reportedly slashed the ransom amount to Rs 1.5 crore. DCP Ravindranath Babu said, “We have some information and are checking it out. So far we have not received any complaint with regard to the kidnap.”