Cops rescue 5-year-old boy within 12 hours of kidnap

The police acted swiftly and rescued a five-year-old boy after arresting four of his kidnappers from Kengeri, west Bengaluru on Monday night.

The west division police had to shoot  at one of the kidnappers in his leg when he tried to assault  the police team in a bid to escape. The police are on the hunt for three others who managed to escape.

The kidnap happened on January 28 around 2 pm when the boy, who is the son of Rajesh, a car driver, was playing in front of his house in K P Agrahara.

One of the kidnappers, whom the police later identified as Abhishek, the son of Rajesh's landlord, himself led the boy to a blind spot where there was no CCTV coverage and abducted the boy from there, the police said.

Rajesh then started receiving calls for a ransom for Rs 35 lakh from unidentified persons for the safe release of his son. The callers also threatened to kill the boy if  Rajesh approaches police.

Rajesh  lodged a complaint with KP Agrahara  police who formed three teams that  started tracking the phone calls. Meanwhile, Abhishek too joined the search party and was pretending to search for the boy. The police found his movements suspicious and kept a watch on him while tapping his phone.

The police  soon learnt that Abhishek  was informing the kidnappers about their location and kept alerting them to move to different spots. Abhishek was picked up for questioning and he blurted out that he was part of the kidnap plot. The police also found out that Abhishek masterminded the plot after he learnt that though Rajesh was a driver, he owned a Maruti Swift car, an autorickshaw and  four acres of land in his native village.

The police  traced the  kidnappers'  car moving on Kommaghatta Road in Kengeri. The team surrounded them near Visvesvaraya Layout and rescued the boy. Meanwhile, car driver Divyatej charged at the police with a machete.

A senior police officer fired twice at his leg with his service pistol in self defence. One of the bullets hit Divyatej's right leg immobilising him. Two others who were present in the car identified as Srikanth (19) and Arshith (18) were arrested while Divyatej was shifted to Victoria Hospital.

The Kengeri police have registered a case against the gang for assaulting the police and are investigating. The boy was reunited with his parents.