Bengaluru: When police confronted Bhaskar Reddy after finding the body of a boy wrapped in an old bed inside his car, he had a ready explanation: an unknown pedestrian who had come under the wheels of his car near Hosahalli Junction. “As the boy died, I picked him up and decided to dispose of the body,” he allegedly told police.But the cops were not convinced. The dead boy was not an unknown pedestrian. He was 13-year-old M Prajwal, son of Bhaskar’s former neighbour. “He tried to mislead us. Prajwal did not suspect any harm from Bhaskar,” a police officer said.While Bhaskar was attempting to cook up an accident story, Prajwal’s father Manohar was frantically searching for his son. Manohar approached Yelahanka police on Thursday morning and reported Prajwal missing. The family had searched for the boy through the night. Manohar told police they initially assumed Prajwal was out taking part in Ganesh festivities and began looking for him only in the night when he did not return home.A close relative, Ravi Kumar, said the family had learnt Bhaskar had taken Prajwal with him on Wednesday night. “Prajwal wanted to buy crackers. We thought Prajwal was with Bhaskar. When Prajwal did not return home, we called Bhaskar and he claimed Prajwal was not with him. Thereafter, we started looking for Prajwal and went to Yelahanka police station to lodge a complaint,” he said. Interestingly, Wala Tirupal Reddy, Bhaskar’s father, had joined Manohar in the search for the missing boy, unaware of what his own son had done.Yelahanka police subsequently told Manohar that an unidentified boy’s body had been recovered in connection with a suspected accident and asked him to check the mortuary at Dr Ambedkar Hospital. Manohar rushed there, hoping for answers. But the boy’s face had been so badly disfigured that he could not establish the identity. Dejected and panic-stricken, the family returned to the police station.Then came the phone call that changed everything. Tirupal Reddy’s wife called him to say their son Bhaskar had been detained at Chikkajala police station after police found a body inside his car following the accident.Manohar and Tirupal Reddy rushed to Chikkajala police station. When Bhaskar saw his father standing alongside Manohar, he confessed to kidnapping and killing Prajwal. During questioning, Bhaskar claimed his family was burdened with Rs 3 crore in debt and that he hatched the plan hoping to raise Rs 1 crore. However, police said he has not yet been able to give investigators a clear explanation of why Prajwal was targeted or how the alleged plan was to be executed. The police are now investigating whether the alleged debt and ransom angle was genuine and whether anyone else was involved. Bhaskar has been remanded in police custody for seven days. Investigators are also searching for his alleged accomplice Edukondalu, who fled after the murder.
