The four-year-old kidnapped son of a software engineer couple here was found on Wednesday in Khammam district of the state.

Rohit was abducted while he was playing with his brother on Tuesday evening. He was released by the kidnappers at Tekulapalli village in the district on Wednesday evening, police said.

“We spoke to him over the phone. He is in the safe custody of police,” his father Ravinder Reddy, a senior executive in Cognizant Technologies, told reporters.

Hours after Rohit’s mother made an emotional appeal for his release based on humanitarian grounds, his abductors left him by the roadside at Tekulapalli.

The villagers took the boy, who was sick and prone to convulsions, to the police station. The police informed the family in Hyderabad about the release.

“We are very thankful to the media for its wide coverage because that led to my son’s release unharmed,” Ravinder Reddy said.

Police had formed special teams to rescue the boy. However, the investigation could not make headway as no ransom call was received by the boy’s parents.