A 28-year-old mason was arrested on charges of kidnapping a nine-year-old girl from outer Delhi’s Budh Vihar, allegedly to force her mother to accept his marriage proposal. The child was rescued from Mahoba railway station in Uttar Pradesh within 12 hours of her kidnapping, police said Tuesday.

Police said the man, identified by his single name Kamlesh, was taking the girl to his home town in Mahoba after kidnapping her from outside her home on Sunday afternoon. Kamlesh had allegedly lured the girl away by promising to take her sightseeing to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

“He had boarded a train from Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station the same night. But before he could reach his home town, we had tracked his movement and alerted the Uttar Pradesh police. The government railway police (GRP) personnel caught Kamlesh and safely rescued the girl when they got off the train at the Mahoba railway station on Monday morning,” SD Misra, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), said.

DCP Misra said the girl’s mother lives with her four children in their rented room in Budh Vihar. Her husband had abandoned the family three years ago and the woman works as a domestic help.

Three months ago, Misra said the woman had hired Kamlesh to repair a leak in the ceiling of the room. Kamlesh had developed a liking for her and began pressuring her to marry him. In order to force her into accepting her proposal, Kamlesh had planned the kidnapping, police said.

On Sunday, the girl went missing when she left home to buy eggs from a nearby shop. Her mother panicked when the girl did not return home. The Vijay Vihar police was informed about the matter and a kidnapping case was registered. Mishra said 12 teams comprising 75 police personnel were formed to rescue the girl. Investigators scanned the CCTV camera footage from nearby shops. The girl was seen riding pillion on a motorcycle in the footage. Another footage showed the child talking to a man near the house.

First Published: Jun 05, 2019 07:15 IST