India: Murderer of an eight-year-old arrested because he could not spell ‘police’
Cops used a spell-check test on suspects after ransom message had the misspelt word
Last month, a man named Ram Pratap Singh in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh kidnapped an eight-year-old boy and later murdered him. But, little did he know that his poor spellings would lead the police to him.
According to Indian news reports, on September 7, UP police were able to arrest Singh, who had kidnapped the boy from near his grandmother’s house on October 26.
He sent a message to the boy’s father, using a stolen phone, demanding a ransom of Rs2 lakh (Dh9,929) for his release.
In the message, he wrote in Hindi: "Do lakh Rupay Seeta-Pur lekar pahuchiye. Pulish ko nahi batana nahi to hatya kar denge (Reach Sitapur with Rs2 lakh. Don’t inform the pulish or I will murder your son).”
The boy’s family reached the police station and lodged a missing complaint, and the police sprung to action.
A senior police official told news media outlets: “We formed teams to trace him. We called back on the mobile phone number. But, the phone was switched off. The cyber-surveillance cell was roped in, and we detained a person in whose name the SIM was issued. But, he said his phone had been stolen.”
Based on CCTV footage and tip-offs, police picked up 10 suspects, including Singh.
To catch the culprit, the police asked all suspects to write, 'Main police main bharti hona chahta hoon. (I want to join the police)' , on a piece of paper.
Ram Pratap Singh fell for the bait and spelt police as ‘pulish’ and Sitapur as ‘Seeta-Pur’ as he had done in the ransom message. He was arrested on Saturday and later confessed to having kidnapped and murdered the child.