BENGALURU: A UK-returned MTech graduate, who had recently joined an infrastructure company, has been arrested on charges of kidnapping and killing the 13-year-old son of his former neighbour in Bengaluru Urban district on Wednesday night.Police said the accused, Wala Bhaskar Reddy, allegedly planned to extort Rs 1 crore from the boy’s realtor father to repay his family’s debts amounting to Rs 3 crore. His accomplice in the murder, identified as Edukondalu, is on the run.Based on preliminary investigations, police officers said the Reddys and the family of M Prajwal, a Class VIII student, were neighbours in Yelahanka before the latter moved to another lane in the locality. On Wednesday, Bhaskar allegedly picked up Prajwal near his house in his compact SUV, telling him they would buy firecrackers. He also promised to teach the boy how to drive.According to police, Bhaskar and Edukondalu drove Prajwal to an isolated spot, made a video of him in their custody and struck the boy on the head with a wooden log, leaving him unconscious.The accused then moved Prajwal to another deserted site and rained bricks on the boy, bludgeoning him to death. Police said the accused had planned to send Prajwal’s video, recorded before the killing, to his family and demand ransom.The duo stood on a compound wall and rained hollow bricks on the boy, bludgeoning him to death. Police said the accused had planned to send Prajwal’s video, recorded before killing him, to his family and demand ransom.“Edukondalu is a private school bus cleaner and agreed after money was offered. Following the boy’s death, he left the scene and Bhaskar decided to take Prajwal’s body to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, and dispose it there,” police said. He wrapped the body in an abandoned and torn mattress found at the site and then placed it in the SUV’s boot.However, it was while transporting the body that Reddy’s plan began to unravel. Police said he was inebriated when he rammed the SUV into an electric pole. He continued driving, before crashing into two cars parked outside an apartment complex near Chikkajala.Hearing the impact, security personnel and residents rushed out and caught Reddy. Suspecting that he was drunk, they searched the vehicle and discovered the boy’s body in the boot.“Preliminary investigations revealed that the boy’s father, Manohar, and Bhaskar Reddy were neighbours for some years. There is no enmity between the two families, nor are they business rivals. The boy had a craze for cars and the accused took advantage of it and lured him,” said deputy commissioner of police (North East division) G K Mithun KumarPolice are questioning Bhaskar to determine other reasons he kidnapped and killed Prajwal. Police are on the lookout for Edukondala.
