Police identify murderer of eight-year-old child via 'spelling mistake'

Spelling mistake led police in India to identify an alleged murderer, who abducted and killed his eight-year-old distant cousin.

The incident occurred in Hardoi area of India’s Uttar Pradesh state.

According to details, the 22-year-old accused identified as Ram Pratap Singh, allegedly kidnapped the eight-year-old boy, from his grandmother’s house on October 26.

He then used a stolen phone to sent a ransom note to the family demanding Rs 200,000 for the release of the child.

In the message, he wrote: ‘Do lakh rupay Seeta-Pur lekar pahuchiye. Pulish ko nahi batana nahi to haatya kar denge.’ The message’s English translation is ‘Reach Sitapur with Rs 2 lakh. Don’t inform the police or your son will be murdered.’

The family approached police after more than a week and filed a missing complaint at Beniganj police station, following which an investigation was initiated.

“We swiftly formed teams to trace the kidnapped boy and called back on the same number but it was switched off. The cyber-surveillance cell was roped in and we detained the subscriber, who seemed illiterate and unable to write an SMS,” the local police said.

The investigators apprehended 10 suspects, including the accused, from the area on the basis of leads gathered via the area’s CCTV footage and tip-offs.

All of them were asked by the cops to write a sentence: ‘Main police main bharti hona chahta hoon. Main Hardoi se Sitapur daud kar ja sakta hoon’ (I want a police job. I can run from Hardoi to Sitapur).

Singh, who made spelling mistakes in his ransom note once again repeated them by writing ‘pulish’ for police and ‘Seeta-pur’ for Sitapur, resulting in his immediate arrest.