The body of a 13-year-old boy, who was kidnapped three days ago from a crowded Kanpur locality, was found on the banks of the Ganga river in the neighbouring Unnao town Sunday, police said.
Victim Karan's father Pawan Maheshwari was understood to have already paid a ransom of Rs.2 lakh to the kidnappers and had agreed to shell out Rs.1 lakh more but the kidnappers lynched the boy and dumped the body at a deserted spot in Unnao, about 45 km from here, police source said.
"Maheshwari had received several ransom calls and while we were still trying to track down these calls, the boy was done to death," a police official said from Kanpur.
However, the victim's family accused the police of laxity and said they had been promised a Special Task Force (STF) was on the job now when the boy is no more.
This was the second incident of kidnapping and killing in Uttar Pradesh over the past 10 days. A young boy kidnapped from Meerut was found murdered in Ghaziabad earlier this month.
The state's Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal said: "My experience tells me that kidnappers take to killing only when they know the victim has recognised them. I do not rule out the possibility that Karan Maheshwari had recognised one of them."
He was confident of solving the case soon. "We have managed to arrest the Meerut kidnappers and I am sure we will get those involved in the Kanpur kidnapping too," Lal asserted.