It was a 17-year-old juvenile who had allegedly kidnapped and murdered a six-year-old boy in Central Delhi’s Ranjit Nagar area just to fulfil his desire to own a high-end mobile phone.

The macabre plot came to light within hours after the victim, Ganesh was found dead in a park in south-west Delhi’s Naraina area on Friday evening. He was kidnapped on Thursday evening when he was playing outside his house in Central Delhi’s Ranjit Nagar area.

Police believed that a known person of the family was involved as professionals would not have kidnapped a fruit vendor’s son and demanded Rs1.5 lakh. “During investigation, it came to light that the boy was last seen playing with the juvenile close to his house before he went missing. The juvenile was therefore interviewed at length in the presence of his parents during which, he broke down and confessed to the crime. He has been detained for the act,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Central Range) Sandeep Goel.

He disclosed that he wanted to buy an i-Phone and lead a lavish lifestyle. He knew that the deceased’s father had recently spent Rs1.5 lakh on his heart surgery. This led him to believe that he can arrange the same amount of money again, police said.

“On Thursday evening, he lured the victim on the pretext of letting him play games in his mobile phone and waylaid him to Satya Park in Naraina where he stabbed him with a knife to death. He then made a ransom call from a Chinese mobile handset using a SIM card which he had stolen from the mobile of his neighbourer’s wife,” said Goel.

He made a ransom call of Rs1.5 lakh to the deceased’s father and directed him to arrange the same by the next morning. After brutally killing the child, he came back to his house and washed his clothes and even involved himself in the search of the child with the deceased family to avoid being suspected, he said.

The juvenile knew that he would be identified by Ganesh if he left him alive, so he made the ransom call only after killing the boy, said another official related to the investigation. The stolen SIM card, mobile handset and blood stained clothes have been recovered from his possession. The juvenile was produced before the JJ Court which sent him to juvenile home, police said.

The incident comes close on the heels of the brutal murder of a jeweller’s son in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar area after he was kidnapped for ransom. “Ganesh’s kidnapping came to light on Thursday evening when his father, who is a fruit vendor, returned home and discovered that his son was not back from play,” police said.

With the boy failing to return till late, his father went looking for him. He received the first ransom call at around 9.30 pm in which the caller demanded Rs1.5 lakh for Ganesh’s release, police said.

It was then that the boy’s father decided to approach police. But even as police were trying to trace the kidnapper, Ganesh’s body was found in the park on Friday evening with the throat slit.