The police say the teens pushed the body from the cliff and returned to Delhi two days later. (Representational image)
A boy and a girl, both 17, have been caught by the police for allegedly kidnapping a 13-year-old boy and then strangling him in a plan to raise money to participate in a reality show.
All three were part of a dance troupe and often went out of town together for performances.
The accused teenagers wanted to go to Mumbai to participate in a popular dance reality show and plotted to kidnap Swapnesh Gupta for ransom, said senior Delhi Police officer MS Randhawa.
They allegedly kidnapped the boy on September 16, after telling him they were all going for a show, and took him to Uttarakhand.
After staying the night at a friend's house, the couple allegedly took the boy to a hilltop at Ranikhet town and strangled him with a belt.
The police say the teens pushed the body from the cliff and returned to Delhi two days later.
They allegedly called up the boy's father and demanded a ransom of Rs 60,000.
Investigations revealed that the phone number from which the ransom call was made was registered in the name of a resident in Jaitpur near Delhi and the documents were fake.
A police team tracked down the location of the caller to Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi.
Phone records revealed that the callers had been in Uttarakhand between September 16 and 18 and the police confronted the teenagers who had taken Swapnesh with them.
The police claim they confessed during questioning.