A 14-year-old boy, who was allegedly kidnapped from a village in Bihar, was found dead, the police said on Monday.

Shivshanker Kumar, a class eight student, was abducted on Sunday while on his way to Kerodarpur from Kevlatand village. His body was recovered from the riverine area of Ganga in Khusrupur in late on Sunday night, the police said.

According to an FIR filed by Kumar's father Kailash Prasad, a railway employee, the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs five lakh for his son's safe release.

When contacted, Superintendent of Police (Rural) U K Sinha said that the ransom demand was only a ploy, as the intention of the abductors was to kill the boy in order to settle a dispute over toddy drinking.

The police have launched a hunt to arrest the culprits, the SP said.