CHENNAI: Six hours after two women allegedly kidnapped a three-year-old boy from a school in Pulianthope, posing as the child’s relatives, the police arrested the women and rescued the boy early on Monday morning. Police said the women, who were known to the family for five years, kidnapped the child to sell him to a couple for Rs 2 lakh. When the police rescued the boy, he was found tied to a chair, his mouth taped with cloth, they said.
M Prakash (28), a daily wage worker at the Pulianthope market, was staying at Bogiamman Street at Pulianthope with his wife Devi (26), son Ajay (3), daughter Gopika (1), and mother Durga (50).
“Around 12.15 pm on Monday, two women approached a government-run school at Pulianthope and asked for Ajay who was in LKG. One of the women claimed that she was the boy’s grandmother and picked him from the school. The other woman introduced herself as Devi’s sister, saying that they had come to take Ajay back home since there was some death nearby,” said an investigation officer. The teacher was convinced since the woman looked elderly and gave details about Ajay’s family. As the boy didn’t scream or raise any alarm, no one suspected her and thought she was his relative.
“As usual, at 3 pm, I left from work to pick my son,” said Prakash. “The teachers said Ajay left with his grandmother and I immediately called home only to know that they had not picked him up. Since the school was situated only 500 metres away from the house, somebody should have seen the women and my son, we started enquiring.”
Prakash informed his relative Varalakshmi, who, along with her friends, started looking for CCTV cameras near the schools while Prakash and Devi lodged a complaint with the Pulianthope police at 5.30 pm.
“A few residents told us that the women passed by the mosque near the school. We went to a house and the resident gave us the footage immediately. We recognised that the women were known to our family,” said Varalakshmi, adding, “The woman who introduced herself as grandmother worked as a construction worker when we were building our house. The other one was her daughter.”
The family informed Pulianthope Inspector M Ravi about the suspects. The suspects were identified as N Kuttyamma (41) and T Aishwarya (20).“A team of police went to their house at Otteri and found that only Kuttyamma’s father Srinivasan was present and the duo had been staying in another house at Vyasarpadi. The women had told Srinivasan that they were going to take care of relatives’ house who were out of town,” said the police officer.
Around 1.30 am on Tuesday, the police team broke into the house in Otteri and found the two women and the child Ajay. “The boy’s hands were tied to the chair and his mouth was taped with cloth so that he did not make any noise,” said the police officer.
Investigations revealed that one Jothi had asked Kuttyamma for a child for adoption. On Monday evening Kuttyamma called Jothi and told her that one of her relatives was willing to give a child for adoption for `two lakh and all formal procedures would be over within a week.
Kuttyamma, who was working as an agent for egg donation at private hospitals in the city, on September 15 kidnapped a newborn from a primary health centre at Pulianthope and knowing that the police tracked her down, left the child on the road and fled the spot.The police arrested the duo under IPC section 369 (Kidnapping or abducting child under 10 years) and remanded them in judicial custody.