A 17-year-old boy who hid his own sister and demanded Rs.700,000 from his father over the phone with a changed voice was arrested by the Gampaha Police.
The suspect was the eldest in the family of three children. Police said his mother had gone abroad for employment leaving the children in the care of their father.
His father told police that his son who wanted Rs.500,000 to form a music group was displeased with him when it was refused. He said his 15-year-old daughter had gone missing after she went to a nearby boutique and that he searched for her with the help of the neighbours but to no avail. He said even the suspect joined the search. He stated to police that he received a call demanding a ransom of Rs.500,000 to release his daughter.
However, when the Women and Children’s Bureau of the Gampaha Police initiated investigations of his complaint, the disappeared girl returned home at about 9pm on Saturday (6) and told her father that the abductors who kept her at a house in an unknown area brought her by trishaw and left at the junction.
When the police questioned her at length, she made a clear breast of the incident and told that her brother took her to one of her friend’s house. The suspect young man admitted that he planned to get a ransom from his father who refused his request for Rs.500,000 to organize a music group.(Tilakaratne Dissanayake)
