Three-year-old Sharath, son of Baireddipalle (Palamaner sub-division) sub-inspector Krishnamohan, who went missing on Friday last, was found safe at the Mahadevapura police station in Bengaluru on Wednesday afternoon, and was brought to Palamaner in the evening.
Deputy Superintendent of Police P. Shankar said a stranger had picked up the boy on the main road of Palamaner, when he strayed from home, on Friday evening.
Boarding a lorry on the outskirts of the town, the abductor alighted at Nangili village on the Chittoor district-Karnataka border close to midnight (of Friday last). Next day, he took the boy to a temple nearby and stayed there along with Ayyappa devotees for a couple of days. Later, he took the child to Bengaluru.
The man dropped the boy close to the Mahadevapura police station.
A woman, on finding the lonely child, took him to the local police station and handed over the boy to the policemen. As the police station concerned had information about the missing boy and his photograph, they contacted the Palamaner police immediately, and the six-day-long search across the borders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu came to an end. Over 200 police personnel were deployed to search for the boy. The DSP said the man had purchased new clothes and footwear for the boy.
“We have collected vital information from some of the places in Palamaner and villages bordering Karnataka about the movements of the abductor.
At one place, he had even collected some cash. We have released the sketch of the suspect four days ago,” the DSP said.
Another investigation official observed that based on the mobile communication signals during the missing period, “vital clues” were gathered.
