In a shocking case from Nagpur, three men have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a young boy as part of a failed extortion plot linked to a land dispute. The victim, identified as 11-year-old Jeet Yuvraj Sonekar, a class six student, was abducted with the intent of extracting a ransom of ₹5 lakh from his father, Yuvraj Sonkar. What makes the crime particularly disturbing is that the accused were reportedly close friends of the boy’s father and had known the family for several years.
The incident unfolded on Monday in the Khaparkheda area. Jeet had left for school in the morning but failed to return home by evening. His worried family began searching for him and later filed a missing persons report. That same evening, the boy’s body was discovered by a goat herder, showing signs of severe injuries to his head and eyes.
Police investigations revealed that the accused – Rahul Pal, Yash Verma, and Arun Bharatiya – had initially planned only to abduct Jeet and demand ransom. Pal, who was considered the mastermind, lived in the same neighborhood as the victim’s father, in Vaikoli Colony, and shared close ties with him. However, the plan escalated when the men strangled Jeet inside a car. His body was then placed inside a bag and dumped in nearby bushes in an attempt to conceal the crime.
Ironically, in a chilling twist, the accused even joined Jeet’s father in searching for the missing boy to avoid suspicion. Police later discovered that the men had targeted the family because they were aware of a significant farmland transaction involving Yuvraj Sonkar and believed he had the financial capacity to pay the ransom.
Within hours of the crime, the Nagpur police managed to track down and arrest all three suspects. They have been booked under charges of murder and kidnapping, with further investigations underway to uncover additional details about the plot and its planning.
