Four, including two women, arrested for kidnapping two boys

Indore: Four persons, including two women, were arrested early Friday just five hours after they had kidnapped two boys from a park by luring them with snacks and pet animals in Lalaram Nagar area of Indore.The boys were found unharmed in a flat, around 15km from the abduction site, police said.The victims — Naitik Sonkar, 9, and Samrat, 11 — went missing from Tirupati Garden in Lalaram Nagar late Thursday evening, where they had gone to play cricket. Their families raised the alarm when they found them absent from the area.The boys' families received WhatsApp calls from one of the accused demanding a ransom of Rs 15 lakh, with a threat to kill the children if the money was not paid. They immediately reported the demand to police."We received information about the abduction at Palasia police station. Special teams were formed and intense surveillance was started to nab the accused," police commissioner Santosh Kumar Singh told reporters.Ten special teams comprising 25 personnel were deployed across hotels, bus stands, railway stations, gardens and temples. ACP Tushar Singh told reporters that surveillance on the ransom call number proved decisive. "We put that number under surveillance and traced the location," he said. "We reached the place very carefully. The moment the accused saw police, they tried to flee, but we caught them," he said.Using CCTV footage and phone surveillance, police traced the suspects to Shivansh Apartment in Datt Nagar. Officers noticed suspicious movement on the third floor and upon knocking, found the occupants attempting to escape. All four were caught on the spot, and both boys were recovered safely from inside the flat.The four arrested are: Vineet Prajapati (22), Radhika Prajapati (19), Lalit Sen (21), and Tanisha Sen (20). The ACP said that Vineet and Radhika are siblings, while Lalit and Tanisha are husband and wife.Radhika and Tanisha work for an e-commerce company, while Lalit is a driver. Vineet was involved in investment-related work in the stock market and has been unemployed for the last six months.Multiple mobile phones used in the crime were seized.Police said that the abduction was premeditated. Tanisha Sen had been loitering near the garden for three to four days prior to the incident, gradually befriending the children by luring them with stories of puppies, pigeons, white mice, rabbits and cats and showing them animal videos on her phone.A male accomplice promised the boys they would receive the animals as gifts if they accompanied them. The children unsuspectingly walked into the trap.Tanisha hailed a cab and transported the boys to a flat in the Rajendra Nagar area, where she began recording videos of them. When the boys said they were hungry that night, she prepared semiya in milk to feed them.ACP Singh confirmed that the children were not harmed. "The accused did not cause any injury to the boys," he said.The boys were taken to MY Hospital for medical examination immediately after their rescue and subsequently handed over to their parents.During initial questioning, the accused admitted to having planned both the kidnapping and the ransom demand.