ELURU: A four-year-old boy was kidnapped from a kindergarten in Bhimavaram on Tuesday afternoon. Within hours, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of `5 lakh from his parents and warned them not to approach the police if they wanted to get back the child alive. The boy was reportedly found on the outskirts of Bhimavaram late the night.
According to police, Mamidi Shyam Gowtham, son of Lakshmana Rao, a resident of Durgapuram area in Bhimavaram, was a student at the Wonderkids Kindergarten in Mentevarithota area. His father is a carpenter and mother a housewife. Gowtham is their only son. On Tuesday morning, Gowtham went to school as usual. Around 12 noon, an unknown person went to the school and informed the teachers that the child’s grandfather had met with an accident and was undergoing treatment at the Eluru Government hospital.
He told them that the child’s father wanted him back at home. To make them believe, he rang up his accomplice who spoke to a teacher and claimed to be the boy’s father. The unsuspecting teachers sent the boy with him. But before they did so, they asked Gowtham if he knew the person to which he replied in the affirmitive. Minutes later, Lakshman Rao received the ransom call. He and his wife Durga approached the one-town police immediately and lodged a complaint. When Lakshman Rao was at the police station, the kidnapper called him again and warned him not to approach the police.