Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 21 (IANS): Four friends of a 22-year-old 'chaat seller', allegedly kidnapped and killed him and later dumped his body in the Pandu River after which they demanded a ransom from his family members.

The police have arrested four friends of the victim and on the basis of clues provided by them, a search operation has been launched in the Pandu River to fish out the body of the deceased.

According to reports, the victim, Mahendra Dohre, used to live with his brother-in-law Nand Ram at a rented house in Karrahi Nai Basti area here.

Both used to sell 'chaat' in the area.

Mahendra's brother Surendra, alleged that late in the evening on Sunday, his friends visited their house and took Mahendra with them over the pretext of an outing.

It was when Mahendra did not return home till late in the night, that they launched a search for him.

On Monday morning, Mahendra's brother-in-law received a call on his mobile phone.

The caller said that Mahendra had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom of Rs 2 lakh from him for his safe release. After this, three more back-to-back phone calls were made on the mobile phone of his brother-in-law, and the caller asked him to arrange and send the money quickly.

Sensing trouble, the brother-in-law, however, approached the Barra police which swung into action and after tracing the number, managed to nab the caller and his three friends.

Inspector Ajay Seth said that during interrogation, the accused confessed to have killed their friend and had thrown his body into the Pandu River. They also admitted to have demanded ransom from his family.

The body is yet to be found.