New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS): Delhi Police have arrested a man for allegedly kidnapping a 7-year-old child from the Gandhi Nagar area here in the national capital, an official said here on Wednesday.
According to the official, they received a call at the Gandhi Nagar police station at around 5.39 p.m. about a kidnapping incident and the kidnapper was demanding Rs 1.10 crore for the safe release of the child.
The family informed the police that their son has been kidnapped by their own servant, identified as Monu, who had been employed by them just a month ago.
"He worked with them for 8-9 days and went away. About 5-6 days ago, he was again reemployed with a higher salary as the child has started crying & demanding him back due to more attachment and accused servant Monu started working with them," Deputy Commissioner of Police R. Sathiyasundaram said.
At about 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the accused kidnapper Monu took the victim for a walk after informing the child's mother. After about one hour, when they did not return, she tried to contact her servant but his phone was switched off. After few minutes, the accused servant called back on her mobile phone and demanded Rs 1.10 cr for the safe release of the child.
The police began its investigation after deploying several teams and one family member was attached with every team.
The task became very challenging as the complainant had not done any police verification of the accused servant. Moreover, the accused was always on the move.
Accordingly, several teams, some in civil clothes, were dispatched to Railway stations, nearby metro stations, ISBTs, check posts, etc as well as suspected hideouts of the accused. The team also covered various parks, isolated/abandoned buildings, and parking lots, the police said.
Meanwhile, the family continued negotiation efforts as the ransom amount was huge. Accused was conveyed that the family can pay only Rs 10 lakh as they don't have that much money to pay. However, the accused servant refused to listen to them and instead instructed parents to arrange Rs 1 crore within one hour and switched off the mobile after that.
After a rigorous investigation for three hours, the kidnapper along with the child was spotted near Gokulpuri Metro station at about 8.30 p.m. where the accused was waiting to get a call back from the parents after arranging the money demanded.
The police arrested the accused and safely recovered the abducted child.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that he was planning to buy a flat with the ransom money in Mumbai where he was working as a decorator a few years back.
"Thank You Delhi Police", the mother of the abducted child said. She told IANS that her happiness knew no bounds. "I thank the Delhi Police from the core of my heart for rescuing my child," she said as tears of happiness rolled down her cheeks.
The father of the child said that the Delhi Police extended their extreme support in quickly recovering their child. "I will always remain indebted to all the officials of the Delhi Police," the father said.
However, he regretted not doing the police verification which made the cops' task difficult to find the accused. "Monu had joined just 5-6 days back through one of our known person so we did not consider doing a police verification," he said.
The police officials said that the accused was so cunning that he had infatuated the abducted boy to such a level that when they were arresting the accused, the 7-year-old kid told police that the servant is his uncle and do not arrest him.
The police said the role of other people is also being probed and further investigation is in progress.