Body of a six-year-old boy, who had been kidnapped allegedly for ransom on Thursday, was found in a paddy field of Jhawla village in Sadar upazila early yesterday.

Police have arrested three alleged abductors in this connection.

The deceased was Labib, son of Yousuf, an expatriate living in Oman, of the village.

Labib was playing near their house and went missing around 5:00pm. Relatives and neighbours looked for him till the dark in vain, said police quoting his mother Laboni Begum.

In the meantime, she received a call from an unidentified person who asked her to collect her son from Haluaghat in Mymensingh, said Inspector Ansar Uddin, in-charge of Nurundi Police Investigation Centre under Sadar police.

Laboni filed a general diary with the police investigation centre in this connection around 10:00 that night.

Locals found Labib lying unconscious around 500-600 yards away from his house around 1:30am. He was rushed to Jamalpur General Hospital where on-duty doctors declared him dead, said the inspector.

The police yesterday tracked the number, from which Laboni received the call, and detained Faisal Khandakar, 24, son of Abdur Rahman of the same village.

After interrogating him, the police also detained Babul, 35, son of Khabir Hossain, and Sanuar Hossain, 24, son of Younus Ali of Purbo Bashchhora village in connection with the murder.

The detainees confessed to abducting the boy for ransom, Ansar said, adding that the trio made the boy take fruit juice mixed with sedative that eventually led to his death.

The body was sent to the hospital morgue for autopsy, he added.