Bengaluru: “Dad, please give them whatever they are asking, don’t delay.” Little did 13-year-old M Prajwal know that the words he was being asked to act out were part of a chilling script for his own murder.The class 8 student from Vinayakanagar in Yelahanka thought he was doing a prank video. But the ugly reality was that his killers were rehearsing a fake kidnap scene that they planned to use to extort Rs 1 crore from his parents.The chilling details emerged during the investigation into Prajwal’s kidnap and murder in north Bengaluru’s Chikkajala. Police recovered five short videos from the mobile phone of alleged mastermind Wala Bhaskar Reddy, 26, a UK-returned construction management graduate.According to police sources, Bhaskar picked up Prajwal from his home on the night of Sept 16 on the pretext of buying crackers for Ganesha festivities and teaching him to drive. During the drive towards an isolated layout in Bagalur, Bhaskar allegedly praised Prajwal’s acting skills and persuaded him to enact different kidnapping scenarios. The boy was asked to appear frightened, announce that he had been kidnapped, and plead with his father to pay ransom. Believing it was merely a prank that would later amuse his parents, Prajwal agreed.Bhaskar allegedly recorded one video in the car and 3-4 more after reaching the layout. Each clip lasted 30 to 40 seconds. Soon after the recordings, police said Bhaskar and his accomplice Edukondalavadu alias Edukondalu, 19, attacked Prajwal with a wooden log before taking him to an adjacent site and allegedly bludgeoning him to death with hollow bricks.Bhaskar allegedly planned to send the recorded clips at different intervals to scare Prajwal’s realtor-father Manohar, and force him to pay the ransom without approaching police. If Manohar still insisted on speaking to Prajwal on a WhatsApp call, the videos would have been used by Bhaskar and his associate to create the impression that the boy was still alive, sources said.Crime & CrashesA series of road crashes on Ballari Road on the night of Sept 16-17 led police to the body of Prajwal, which was concealed in the boot of Bhaskar’s car. After the murder, Bhaskar hid the boy’s body and drove towards Andhra Pradesh to dispose of it when his car rammed vehicles near MVIT Cross at Bettahalauru on Ballari Road, prompting locals to intervene. Police searched the vehicle and found Prajwal’s body in the boot. Bhaskar was arrested, and his accomplice was caught in Nellore on Sept 21.Broken Teeth, Cooked-Up StoryOn the night of Sept 16, when police inspected the accident spot, they found Prajwal’s body and a tooth inside the car. That belonged to Edukondalu, who initially claimed he had broken three teeth when he was assaulted by Bhaskar with a log because he refused to cooperate in killing the boy. But when police asked him how one tooth was found in the car, Edukondalu spilled the beans: “When Bhaskar’s car met with an accident, the impact was such that Edukondalu’s face hit the driver’s seat; he broke two teeth and lost one.”
