A teenager has been kidnapped and murdered in East Delhi allegedly by two persons for extracting ransom money from his family to pay off their debts, police said on Saturday.

The duo has been arrested on charges of abducting and killing Pawan Kumar, more than three weeks after the 14-year-old went missing from his house in Old Kondli locality, triggering a major search.

Pradeep Kumar and Rajinder Kumar had abducted the boy, their landlord's son, on February 23. They then strangled and bludgeoned him to death and threw the body in a canal in Hindon.

The duo then made phone calls to his family members seeking ransom for his safe release. The calls were traced, but the two could not be arrested as they kept changing their locations, police added.

Finally, the family received a phone call on Friday after which his parents agreed to pay the ransom and conveyed this to the police, who then laid a trap and nabbed the two from Noida.

On interrogation, the two told police that Pradeep Kumar owed Rs 7,000 to a shopkeeper and they kidnapped the boy to extract money to pay off the debt.