A16-year-old boy from Ladnu in the Nagaur district of Rajasthan strangled his 12-year-old cousin after a quarrel over payment tokens in online games.

The accused then buried the body in a field and then sought a ransom of Rs 5 lakh from the deceased’s uncle over social media. Police said he planned on using the ransom money to buy payment tokens for online games.

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According to the police, a missing report about the 12-year-old had been filed by his uncle on December 9. He had said that his nephew, who was addicted to playing PUBG and other online games on mobile, had been missing since 9 am on December 8.

The police in their investigation found that the cousins used to play games together. Later, when the 16-year-old was interrogated, he said that the duo got into a fight over money while playing online games.

According to the accused, he had lent his cousin some money to buy online gaming tokens, which he failed to return. This led to a quarrel and he killed the 12-year-old in a fit of rage. “He then sought the ransom to buy recharge tokens for online gaming,” a cop said.