Abducted Kishanganj boy rescued in West Bengal

Patna: The kidnapped Kishanganj boy, Siddhant Kumar, 16, was rescued from Panjipara in West Bengal late on Thursday night. Police also arrested four persons, including three friends of Kumar, who had allegedly planned the kidnapping.
Siddhant went missing on Wednesday from North Dinajpur in West Bengal, where he had gone with his three friends. His father Ram Sobharath Rai, a small hardware and cement trader in Kishanganj district, had received a ransom call for Rs 20 lakh on Thursday afternoon, after which he informed police.Police have arrested Prakash, Rohit, Rajeev, three friends of Siddhant who had accompanied him to Panjipara and Guddu in connection with kidnapping of Siddhant.
While his three friends returned home, Siddhant went missing after which his father received a ransom call which was made from his son’s cell phone. Police said he regularly slipped out of his home and visited red light areas in Panjipara. Siddhant is a Class 12 student of a private school in Kishanganj. He is a resident of West Pali Chowk in Kishanganj town.
Kishanganj SP Rajiv Ranjan on Friday said the boy was rescued around 10:30pm on Thursday from Panjipara, a red light area in the neighbouring West Bengal. He said Siddhant was confined inside a house in the locality and one Guddu was arrested from the house. Guddu was guarding the house.
The SP said that the activities of Siddhant were suspicious and police were further investigating the case. The SP said that a special team was immediately constituted after police were informed about the ransom call. SP Ranjan said that the boy was a regular visitor to the red light area, which is only 15 km away from Kishanganj.
The SP said that during investigation, police came to know that Siddhant had gone to the red light area with his three friends. The police then interrogated Prakash, Rohit and Rajeev who had accompanied Siddhant on Wednesday. They later admitted that they had planned the kidnapping to extort money from Siddhant’s family. However, the SP said that the financial condition of the family of kidnapped boy was not good enough to pay the ransom amount. The SP said that a police team conducted raids at several villages leading to recovery of the kidnapped boy. Ranjan said some cell phones were also put on surveillance which led the investigating team to the location of Siddhant.