Kidnapped 11-year-old rescued in 16 hours

BENGALURU: In a dramatic incident, the Bharathinagar police went hot on the trail of a gang of kidnappers and rescued a 11-year-old boy after a 16-hour operation. A senior police officer said that around 6 pm on Friday, the boy was playing alone in front of his house on Thimmaiah Road when the prime accused Mohammed Zain and his associates Faheem, Muzzamil, Faizan, Mohammed Shahid and Kaleel allegedly kidnapped him.

The boy’s parents were shopping in Commercial Street at that time. The father runs a textile business. On returning, the parents frantically looked for the boy and informed the police when they did not find him. Around 1 am, the boy’s father got a call from the accused, who demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore to release the boy. Soon, five teams were formed from the East Division police.

They tracked the accused to Tumakuru based on mobile phone tower locations. Another team scoured CCTV footage which showed two people speaking to the boy before he was kidnapped. Among the duo was Hasheem. The police team, posing the boy’s parents, reached Tumakuru and contacted the kidnappers. However, the accused tried to escape.

Police chased them for 15 km before the accused’s car toppled on to some agricultural land. The police nabbed four of the abductors and rescued the boy. Another team nabbed Zain and his accomplice from Shampura Main Road on Saturday. However, Zain tried to attack police constable Ujjana Gowda. Police Inspector Anand Naik shot Zain in the right leg and nabbed him. Police said Zain is a regular customer at the shop of the boy’s father.

He saw that the father doing good business and hatched a plan to kidnap him. After collecting details about the family, they found the boy was fond of kites. They lured him with a kite before offering him a drink spiked with a sleeping pill in the car and took him to Tumakuru.