Pune: 5-year-old killed for ransom, teenager gang-raped

 In two incidents here, a minor boy was kidnapped and killed while a college girl was gang-raped by four youths over the weekend, police said here Tuesday.

The five-year-old boy was allegedly killed by Parminder Swaran Singh, a 19-year-old catering management student and his 15-year old accomplice studying in an army managed school. The duo kidnapped the boy Sunday in an attempt to collect a ransom of Rs.1 lakh to buy a motorcycle.

However, when the boy tried to escape, they strangled him and dumped his body in a forested area near his home, police said. His body was found Monday morning. The victim was the son of a scientist couple working for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Pune Zone III Deputy Commissioner of Police Shahaji Umap said the fathers of the two youths work as security officers in the Defence Security Corps, which is entrusted with the security of the DRDO establishment here. The accused have been arrested, police said.

In another incident last Saturday, a 19-year-old college student, who had gone to a market in Haveli area with her brother, was kidnapped and repeatedly gang-raped by four men. Police said that the brother-sister duo was waylaid at knife-point by four people near VIT College.

They dragged the girl to a secluded spot behind the college and raped her repeatedly till early Sunday morning. The alleged rapists are still at large and a manhunt has been launched to nab them, police said.