Police have rescued four children, who were allegedly kidnapped by two persons and sold to issueless people, and arrested the accused.
Abandoned by her husband, Sandhya of Gudiyatham in Vellore district was living on the pavement near St. Antony’s Church on V.E. Road here along with her four-month-old baby girl. As the baby went missing in the early hours of March 9, Ms. Sandhya filed a complaint with Thoothukudi South Police.
Superintendent of Police L. Balaji Saravanan formed 10 special teams, which were coordinated by Thoothukudi Assistant SP Kelkar Subramanya Balchandra, to track the baby. After scanning the footages collected from over 150 CCTV cameras installed near the scene of crime, the police zeroed in on two persons — N. Samy alias Karuppasamy, 47, of Alangulam in Tenkasi district and his associate Rajan alias Raja, 53, of Karumbanur near Alangulam.
During interrogation, the police found that the duo had kidnapped Ms. Sandhya’s baby, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl from Tiruchendur temple on December 21 last, and a two-year-old girl from Kulasekarapattinam temple on October 21 last. They also confessed to the police that they had kidnapped another girl, for which no complaint was registered in any police station.
“The duo had sold the girl children to issueless couples and the police rescued all the four children. The kidnappers had convinced the couples that they had babies abandoned by poor families living in hilly regions,” Inspector General of Police (South Zone) N. Kannan told reporters here on Tuesday.
Mr. Kannan said the duo had targeted poor families living on the roadside, in tents, on temple premises, etc., to steal the babies.
“We have identified the parents of three children and steps have been taken to restore them to their parents. Since no one has filed a complaint for the fourth baby, we are trying to identify the parents,” Mr. Kannan said, adding the duo did not have any case pending against them.
The IG lauded the efforts of the special team members in cracking the case and Mr. Balchandra who coordinated the investigation and honoured them with cash rewards. He appealed to the public not to spread rumours about child kidnappings, but to alert the nearest police station. He also urged the parents living in insecure conditions to keep their children safely.
DIG (Tirunelveli Range) Pravesh Kumar was present.
