LAHORE, May 20: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested the alleged killer of a boy whose mutilated body was recovered three days ago after the payment of ransom money.

Reluctantly admitting the murder a failure on the police part, investigation police SSP Capt Mohammad Amin (retired) said: “All murders in kidnap cases can be termed a failure provided the police are informed in time.” In most cases, he claimed, families of victims did not inform the police under directions from kidnappers to avoid any risk.

He parried a question when asked why did the kidnappers in most cases this year succeed in acquiring ransom money. But he claimed all the kidnap for ransom cases in 2002 had been solved. According to him, six kidnap for ransom cases were reported this year. Of them, in, at least, four cases the kidnappers succeeded in getting the ransom money.

However, the SSP claimed the outlaws involved in all the cases had been arrested. But he remained unable to answer questions about the police working viz-a-viz investigation, saying repeatedly: “Saving life of a victim is always our priority.”

About the kidnap and killing of the boy, the SSP said he was kidnapped from outside his house in Shalamar a few days ago. His kidnappers first demanded Rs1 million as ransom money, but later agreed to Rs200,000. He said the mutilated body of the boy was found some distance away from his house three days ago after the payment of the ransom.

“In the light of evidence collected from the crime scene they suspected neighbour Mahfooz Arshad of committing the act. We took him into custody despite the boy’s family suspected the involvement of two other people,” Mr Amin said. He said they arranged his telephonic conversation with the victim’s father. In two calls, he claimed, the victim’s father, Shabbir, recognized his voice as that of the person’s negotiating the ransom money with him.

The SSP said Mahfooz was arrested and a pair of shoes, a nicker and a hatchet used in chopping off the body, the ransom money and a letter were recovered from his shop.

The accused was produced before reporters. Regretting the incident, he said he did not want to kill the boy. “I picked him up, put a piece of cloth into his mouth and detained him in a portion of my shop,” he said. He left the place for sometime and found him dead on return. He said he had to chop off the body to conceal his identity.

About the reason for the kidnap, he said Shabbir had just returned from Saudi Arabia and he thought he (Shabbir) might have brought huge money with him.

The SSP claimed they had enough evidence to proceed against the accused. Further investigation was under way.

PROTEST: Meanwhile, some 200 people, including family members of the victim and residents, staged a protest, blocked the GT Road for an hour by burning tyres.

The protesters demanded an exemplary punishment for the accused. Senior police officers rushed to the spot and assured the protesters of justice.