Hyderabad: Around 4.45 pm on Wednesday, Abhay went out to buy idlis for himself and his brother from Mahalaxmi Hotel at Aghapura, around 250-metre from their house. They used to buy food from this eatery often.
When he did not return after a while, his mother called him up and he replied that he would reach home in two minutes. But when he did not return even after 10 minutes, his mother called him again. She only got an SMS: “Can’t talk. Whatsapp only”.
Ms Anuradha panicked when she called a third time and found his mobile switched off. She alerted her husband and other relatives, who started searching for him in the locality. Later in the night, they lodged a complaint with the police and a missing case was registered.
At 10 pm, Mr Modani’s younger sister-in-law Kavitha Modani got a call on her mobile phone from an unknown number. The caller identified himself as one of the kidnappers and demanded Rs 10 crore in 10 minutes. When Mr Modani expressed his inability to pay Rs 10 crore, they demanded Rs 5 crore and asked the family to come to Secunderabad to hand over the money and pick up the child.
But within a few minutes of the call, the police found the body of the boy wrapped with packing tape and stuffed in a box, abandoned near Alpha Hotel in Secunderabad.
“The boy might have been smothered to death. There are no clues about the kidnappers or the reason behind the murder. We are not ruling out any angle,” said DCP West A. Venkateshwar Rao, adding that special teams had already started to trace the killers.
Police has also recovered CCTV footage from Mangalhat area, which showed Abhay riding pillion with an unkn-own person, on Abhay’s bike. “No one from the family or his father’s employees could identify the person,” the DCP added. Officials involved in the investigation said that the kidnappers could have killed the boy before calling his parents for ransom. The police found the mobile phone used by the kidnappers, abandoned in Vijayawada.
“But no formal arrests have been made so far in the case,” said a police official involved in the investigation.
Abhay was interested in sports
Abhay Modani is one of the twins, Abhay and Abhishek. They were both studying in the same class at Slate-The School in Abids. The duo were a happy-go-lucky pair. While Abhay was good in sports Abhishek excelled in studies. Though Abhay was relatively less interested in studies he was planning to join DPS College and was preparing for the SSC exams beginning March 24.
Abhay was interested in sports from childhood and loved cricket. Relatives said he was good at batting. Abhay never had any problems with friends or outsiders. His father never had enemies who may take such a step. “He was a peaceful child. We do not understand what they wanted by killing him,” said another relative.
