Kanpur: Police on Saturday detained eight YouTubers for allegedly kidnapping a 10-year-old boy and demanding ransom, after the child was released about two hours later. The accused claimed it was a prank.According to DCP (South) Deependra Nath Chaudhary, the incident took place on the evening of Feb 11, when the 10-year-old boy went to a nearby market to buy vegetables. The boy’s father has a private job. The boy told the police that two boys approached him and took him near a private school, where they threatened him and told him to call his mother and demand Rs 2,00,000. The boy called his mother and conveyed the demand while crying, before the boys disconnected the call. The call distressed the family and they began searching for the child.About 25 minutes later, another call came asking for Rs 5,000 to be delivered near UP Kirana School. Around 9 pm, the boys called again and said it was all a prank, after which the boy returned home. After returning, the child told his mother everything. Despite attempts to trace the boys, they could not be located.On February 12, the boy’s mother filed a complaint at the Gujaini police station. Police registered a case and began an investigation, which was aided by CCTV footage.Chaudhary said the police reviewed about 150 CCTV cameras, besides CDR of phone numbers from which ransom demand was made and found that two local boys made the phone calls using numbers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Two teams were deployed to nab the culprits.Arvind Singh from E Block Kacchi Basti, Chandan Kumar from Jarauli, Lucky from Varun Vihar, and Shahid and Aman Katiyar from Barra 8, along with three minors, were taken into custody. Police said the investigation found Aman had two prior theft cases against him.Police said the group admitted they learnt the tactics from social media videos. Police also found between 150 and 200 objectionable videos on their phones.
