Police rescue abducted boy within six hrs of his kidnap, arrest 3 men

PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry police rescued an eight-year-old boy, who was kidnapped by a three-member gang at knife-point for a ransom of Rs five lakh, within six hours after the incident and arrested the three men. Superintendent of police (south) A Nandagopal said SShagul, 8, son of Subath, employed in Kuwait, and his wife, Sabeena, wasreturning home from school on Friday evening when a three-member gang travellingin a car kidnapped him at knife-point. The boy, a second standard student, usedto walk to the government school in Subbaiah Nagar from his house inJeevananthapuram in Puducherry. Around 8 pm, Sabeena’s brotherNasar, with whom the former was staying with her son, received a call on hismobile from U Jawahar Ali, 24, living in the same locality, claiming that theboy was kidnapped by an unidentified gang. Ali said the gang members called himon his mobile and demanded a ransom of Rs five lakh and added that theythreatened to kill the boy if they called the police or failed to give theransom. Ali, who also joined the efforts taken by the family members to trace the boy, pressed them not to approach the police and insisted on mobilizing the money. However, Sabeena preferred to seek police help and lodged a complaint with the D Nagar police around 9 pm.A police team led byinspector Baskaradoss and sub inspector S Balamurugan began the probe. Initialinquires made the police suspect Ali, who claimed he got a call fromunidentified gang members demanding ransom. Police detained him by midnight andon repeated questioning, he confessed to kidnapping the boy with the help of twoof his friends to make easy money. He revealed that his friends hadkept the boy under captivity in a rented house in the same locality. Policeraided the house around 2 am on Saturday and rescued the boy. They also arrestedtwo persons identified as N Tamilselvan, 24 from Tiruvotriyur, Chennai and MManikandan, 24 from Vanur, Villupuram district. They produced the three menbefore a judge in his residence and got them remanded to judicialcustody.