Boy ‘kidnapped’ for stoning car, rescued

PATNA: Two occupants of a car, including a woman, “kidnapped” an 11-year-old Class VI student after a stone thrown by him broke the windscreen of the car in front of a private school at Ramjichak under the Digha police station area in the city around 10.30am on Tuesday.

The duo, however, threw the boy out of the car near Saguna Mor within an hour following intense police operations in the area to rescue the boy, who has been identified as Satish Kumar. The car used in crime was later found abandoned at the parking lot of Danapur railway station by police.

The boy’s mother, Sunita Devi, has lodged a kidnapping case with Digha police station. Police are conducting raids to arrest the two suspects, including one Prince Raj Gautam, a resident of Muzaffarpur.

The boy told police that he had thrown the stone so that a puppy, which was in the middle of the road, could go the other way. “The car was coming towards the puppy at a high speed. Unfortunately, the stone thrown by me hit the car,” he said.

Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said one of the accused forced Satish into the car in presence of large number of students. “The police swung into action after being informed by the boy’s parents. “A woman in her 40s was accompanying Gautam in the car. It seems Gautam took away Satish with him to force his parents to bear the cost of the broken windscreen of the car,” the SSP said.

He said a passerby spotted Satish crying along a road near Saguna Mor and took him to a private hospital. “After first aid at the private hospital, the boy was handed over to his parents by the police,” Maharaaj said.