Gurgaon: An eight-year-old girl was
freed from the clutches of her abductors in Malda of
West Bengal, within two days of her
kidnapping in
Sonipat district of Haryana on Saturday evening.
A special task force (STF) of Haryana Police traced the abductors to the Bengal district with the help of their mobile phones’ locations and safely rescued the girl who was kept hostage in a godown there, following a 45-hour-long operation. The girl was brought back to Sonipat on Monday evening even as the abductors managed to give the
cops the slip.
Her
businessman father suspected the hand of his former business partner in the kidnapping but police are still probing the mater.
The girl was playing in a park near her house in Sonipat on Saturday evening when some people kidnapped her. When her parents did not find her anywhere, they lodged a complaint with the police. Subsequently, a case of kidnapping was registered with the Panipat police and the STF was alerted. “Soon after getting information about the kidnapping, three teams were dispatched to Panipat,”said DIG STF Satheesh Balan.
The parents of the kidnapped girl were originally from West Bengal but they shifted to Sonipat and set up a business there a few years ago. During investigation, it was found that the girl’s father and the main accused were into a fruit business together till around two years ago. But when they suffered losses, the girl’s father exited the partnership and shifted base.
“The accused had been holding the girl’s father responsible for the losses and asking him to pay
compensation. When the girl’s father refused to pay, the accused allegedly threatened to teach him a lesson,” said a senior police officer.
In the meantime, when the abductors called the businessman for ransom, the STF put the phone numbers under technical surveillance. Sources said the abductors made multiple calls, apparently from different numbers, to demand the ransom money. The STF reportedly engaged them in bargaining and finally fixed a time and a place to hand over the ransom money. After the initial investigation, the cops traced the abductors to Malda. Consequently, all the three STF teams rushed to Bengal.
The girl’s father went to the pre-decided spot with the money while the STF followed him. However, at the last moment, the kidnappers grew suspicious and fled the spot leaving the girl behind.
Inspector Jasveer Singh, who was part of the operation, said the girl was with the kidnappers so they were very careful and decided not to use any force. “We had decided to pay the money to free the girl from their clutches first and then catch the kidnappers,” he added. The hunt for the kidnappers is still on.
