Indian national’s ‘missing‘ son found dead

CALAMBA CITY, Laguna , Philippines   â€“ A three-year-old son of an Indian national who was reported missing last Thursday morning was found dead the following day within the compound of the family’s rented apartment in Barangay Barandal here, police said.

The boy, Ekam Belera Singh, was reported missing to the authorities by his parents at around 8 a.m. of Maundy Thursday, said Superintendent Marvin Saro, Calamba City police chief.

Saro said the boy was found dead with his hands and feet tied and mouth gagged the following morning in their compound at Phase 2, Calamba Hills at around 8 a.m. last Friday.

Saro said the boy could have died of suffocation.

He told The STAR they suspected the boy was kept only at a nearby house “but when the kidnappers learned the boy was dead, probably they returned his body to the compound.”

During the course of the investigation, Saro said they invited for questioning Singh’s aunt, Donaril Belera, 24, his boyfriend Edward de Mesa, and Ricardo Taniegra, 53, the apartment’s caretaker.

Saro said probers got suspicious when the three gave different versions, until Taniegra confessed that Belera allegedly instructed him to pick up the ransom at a garbage area near the Mayapa Church.

Saro quoted Taniegra as saying that he gave a paper bag containing the P50,000 ransom allegedly to Belera and De Mesa.

Police have arrested the three and charges of kidnapping with homicide are being readied against them, Saro said.