A team of police personnel from Anantapur are now camping in the city to trace three missing children, whom they suspect were kidnapped by a gang of ‘treasure hunters’.
Last March, Dandagala Vikas, a six-year-old boy from Kusumvaripalli village visited Government Hospital, Kadiri, along with grandparents for seeing his aunt who was ailing there. The boy was taking milk provided by the hospital outside a ward. An unknown person led him away from the hospital. The case was reported to Kadiri Police Station by his mother.
Again next month, another six-year-old boy was reported missing at another station. The child, Shaik Jainullua(6), was in the custody of his grandmother Hiberbi, a daily wager in Nallacheruvu village. On her return from work, the woman found her grandson did not come from school.
On July 7, another case of child missing was reported to the same police station from Kummaravandiapalli village. The six-year-old boy N.Sivasai went missing from school. According to police, the boy came out from the school with another boy citing that he was not well. Unknown persons who came in a bike intercepted them and took the six-year-old boy from public path.
A special team which was constituted to trace missing children, came down to Chennai on Monday.
An officer said, “all three children were in the age of six years and hailing from poor families.
These children were living with their grandparents. Since it was rural areas, no CCTV was installed there and no clue on who kidnapped these children.”
Sacrifice suspected
Another officer said, “We suspect that the treasure hunters might have kidnapped them for human sacrifice since there are believers in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas that human sacrifice on ‘amavasya' (new moon day) would help them in finding treasure. We have previous cases as well.”
They did not rule out that the kidnapped children might be forced to beg or for harvesting organs.
