Odisha: Child rescued, seven including two women held

Bhubaneswar, April 23 (IANS) The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday rescued a nine-year-old boy unharmed within six hours of his kidnapping from the Nirakarpur area of Odisha's Khurdha district, police said.

The policemen also arrested seven persons, including two women involved in the kidnapping case.

The accused were identified as Subhrakant Mohapatra (22) alias Basuni, Somnath Das (21), Chinmaya Kumar Nayak (22), Sandip Routray (22), Sagar Nayak (21), Sujata Jena (19) and Nibedita Das (20).

The main conspirator in the case, Subhrakant is the cousin of victim Pratyush's tuition teacher and also belongs to the victim's village Panchagaon under Airfield police limits in Bhubaneswar.

"Police received the information regarding the kidnapping at around 10:30 a.m. today. It was prima facie ascertained that the kidnapping was committed for ransom. There is a danger to the child in such a sensitive case so we carried out an intense operation constituting four teams," said Commissioner S. Dev Datta Singh.

Singh also added that the victim was finally rescued unharmed from the rented accommodation of accused Somnath Das and Chinmaya at Nirakarpur in Khurdha district.

The accused, who kept the child captive at Nirakarpur, were also arrested by police.

The prime accused Subhrakant, who also hails from the same village has close acquaintance with victim Pratyush's family.

The prime accused who was aware that the minor's father Arta Ranjan Kalia has received a large sum of money by selling a land plot in the area executed the kidnapping to extort ransom from him.

As per the plan, while Pratyush was returning home from school on Tuesday morning, Subhrakant kidnapped the victim on the pretext of taking him to the doctor for treatment.

Meanwhile, the accused persons telephoned the victim's parent asking them for ransom.

They threatened to kill the minor if the ransom was not paid.

Meanwhile, after handing over the child to other accused persons, Subhrakant returned to the village and narrated a false story before the victim's parents that the kidnappers took away the minor boy by threatening him with a gun.

However, the police suspected Subhrakant and succeeded in rescuing the victim by tracking the phone number of Subhrakant and other accused.

--IANS

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