Eleven days after a 5-year-old boy was kidnapped from inside a bus while on his way to school here on January 25, he was rescued by the Crime Branch in the early hours of Tuesday after an encounter. The boy was abducted by three friends, one of whom was shot dead by the police. One was injured and the other arrested.
Ravi (24) was killed, Pankaj alias Singh Saheb (21) sustained injury in his thigh and Nitin Sharma (28) was nabbed, the police said. The accused, all residents of Gokul Puri, had allegedly done it for money to maintain their ‘lavish lifestyle’ and had asked for ₹60 lakh as ransom from the family.
The boy was taken away around 7 a.m. a day before Republic Day when he was sitting next to his sister in the bus. Ravi and Pankaj came on a bike, entered the bus, shot the driver Naresh Thapa in the thigh making sure he couldn’t follow them, abducted the boy and fled with him as everyone watched.
The case was initially being investigated by the district police but was transferred to the Crime Branch three days later.
Three days after the abduction, the first ransom call was made at 12.30 a.m. on January 28 and the person, in a female voice, told the parents that they have to arrange for ₹60 lakh if they wanted the child back.
“Pankaj was the one who used to call in the female voice. In fact, Nitin was also learning the trick,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) R.P. Upadhyay.
For the next eight days, the kidnappers kept in touch with the family almost every day through WhatsApp and normal calls; they used multiple numbers, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) G. Ramgopal Naik.
When the family asked for proof that the child was alive, the kidnappers sent at least two videos to the father’s number where the child said, “I love you, Dad” thrice. “The videos were only 5-6 seconds long. They gave us a lot of hope,” said Ajay Gupta, the child’s uncle.
Mr. Naik said that on Monday night Nitin Sharma, whose location was tracked through technical surveillance, had come to attend a wedding in Vivek Vihar and also to pick up food. He led the police to the rented house where the boy was kept.
A team of at least 15 officers went with him to the hideout and made him call his associates. When they opened the door there was a brief shootout. Inspector Vinay Tyagi in front was shot at but was saved because of the bulletproof jacket. Police fired in self-defence, hitting Ravi below the neck killing him and Pankaj, was injured in the thigh.
When the police went inside, they found the boy under the bed where he had hidden out of fear. “He had seen firing before. He thought we were bad guys too but he was reassured and brought out,” said Mr. Naik.
Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik told The Hindu that he had monitored the situation on a regular basis.
