City police crack kidnapping case in just eight hours

Rescue child, arrest domestic help and her friend for the crime

July 20, 2019 12:34 am | Updated 12:35 am IST - CHENNAI

Ambika, 24 domestic aid and her associate Mohammed Kalimullah Shettu were arrested by city police for kidnap of a three year old girl in Shenoy Nagar

Ambika, 24 domestic aid and her associate Mohammed Kalimullah Shettu were arrested by city police for kidnap of a three year old girl in Shenoy Nagar

The kidnapped three-and-a-half-year-old child of a city-based couple was traced and her abductors were apprehended withing eight hours of the crime taking place, the police revealed on Friday

Anvika is the daughter of Nandhini, a doctor at Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital, and her husband Arul Raj, a software engineer. The family lives on Chellammmal Street, Shenoy Nagar. The girl, a kindergarten student of DAV School, returned home at 12.30 p.m. on Thursday. Ms. Nandhini noticed their domestic help Ambika stepping out to collect the child from the van. However, neither the child nor Ambika came back.

After half an hour later, Mr. Raj received a call from Ambika’s mobile claiming that the child and the help had been kidnapped. An hour later, another call demanded a ransom of ₹60 lakh. The caller also threatened to harm the child unless the ransom was paid immediately. The couple registered a complaint with the Aminjikarai police.

The police constituted seven teams under assistant commissioners of police, including Assistant Commissioner, Anna Nagar, V. Gunasekaran. North ACP R. Dhinakaran told media persons that the complainants were suspicious of Ambika, who had been hired only a month ago.

“After scrutinising CCTV footage and call records from her mobile phone, we came to the conclusion that she was involved. She is from Padi Pudhunagar, near Mogappair West, and was earlier working with a KFC outlet in Thirumangalam. She was close to Mohammed Kalimullah Shettu there and he too was absent from work on Thursday. We found that a red car was used,” he said.

Police Commissioner A.K.Viswanathan monitored the entire operation. All police stations were alerted. The police zeroed in on the red car near Red Hills. At 9.30 p.m, the Red Hills Inspector and Special Sub-Inspector intercepted the car, driven by Shettu.

He disclosed that the child was with Ambika at a resort in Kovalam. Neelangarai ACP V. Visveraya and team reached the resort and rescued the child at 10.15 p.m. Shettu and Ambika were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

“No harm was done to the child by the kidnappers. All our personnel worked efficiently in this operation. We have rescued the child within eight hours. Our investigation revealed that the duo kidnapped the child with a plan to use the ransom to launch a film production unit,” said Mr. Dhinakaran. He also appealed the public to engage domestic helps only after due verification.

Ms. Nandhini said, “I can’t believe that my child was traced so quickly and returned to us. Hats off to the police.” Her husband Arul Raj broke down and said, “We panicked earlier. We are so lucky to get back our child, within hours too.”

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