A 32-year-old woman was arrested by the Charminar police on Monday for allegedly kidnapping two children earlier last week. The siblings, Shanker (07) and Shiva Prasad (04), were rescued by the police.
According to the police, Vaketi Mallamma, a labourer from Karmanghat of Saroornagar, kidnapped the children to engage them in begging. “Her own children were rescued from her by the Adibatla police and were sent to Spandana Home, Bandlaguda, and Deccan Children Home, Hayathnagar. As they were taken out of her legal custody, she hatched a plan to abduct minors and use them for begging,” South Zone In-charge DCP Gajarao Bhupal said.
He said that the victims’ grandmother Panaganti Gangamma from Mahabubnagar, along with her three grandchildren came to Bhagyalakshmi temple, Charminar, for begging. Around 8.30 a.m. on March 14, when she went to a nearby Shiva temple, Shiva Prasad went to the toilet nearby, where Shankar also accompanied him. “After returning she found the two missing, and she came to know that an unknown woman took them away and so approached the police,” Dr. Bhupal said.
Special teams formed
Based on her complaint, special teams consisting of an inspector, two sub-inspectors and 11 constables, were formed to rescue the boys and nab the accused. “We tracked the movements of the suspected woman with the help of technical tools and analysed the footage of nearly 200 surveillance cameras to identify the accused and also collected the photographs,” he said.
Acting on a tip-off from a few autorickshaw drivers between Balapur and L.B. Nagar, the accused was apprehended and the kidnapped boys were rescued at L.B. Nagar crossroad. “As part of her plan, Mallamma approached the boys and lured them with chocolates and ice creams, and kidnapped them” Dr. Bhupal added.