Hyderabad, Sep 29 (IANS): A court in Telangana’s Mahabubabad district on Friday sentenced a youth to death for kidnapping and murdering a nine-year-old boy nearly two years ago.

The district sessions court found Manga Sagar, an automobile mechanic, guilty of murder and awarded him capital punishment.

Sagar, 25, had kidnapped Kusuma Deekshith Reddy for ransom on October 19, 2020 and murdered him a few hours later.

Sagar had throttled the victim to death and later set the body on fire to destroy the evidence.

Deekshith Reddy, son of Ranjith Reddy, a vernacular media scribe, was kidnapped from outside his house in Mahabubabad town.

According to police, since Sagar was acquaintance with Ranjith Reddy, the boy went up to Sagar after the accused called him. After making the boy sit on his bike, Sagar took him to a hillock. Three hours later he killed the boy, fearing that he would disclose his identity, if he was released.

Even after killing the boy, the accused had made VOIP calls to the victim’s family demanding Rs.45 lakh ransom to mislead the investigators.