TIRUPATI: Tirupati Urban police solved the case of abduction of the 16-month-old toddler Veeresh from Tirumala on Friday morning by rescuing the boy and arresting the kidnapper at Nanded district in Maharashtra State on Sunday. Police, however, are yet to establish the motive behind the abduction of the toddler and are suspecting the role of an organised gang of kidnappers behind the kidnap. The kidnapper, identified as Balaji, is a native of Nizamabad district.
Veeresh was sleeping along with his parents Prashanta Jadhav and Sneha from Latur district in Maharashtra at a mandapam near APSRTC bus stand on Tirumala, when he was abducted around 7.30 am on Friday. Police verified video footage and found that the abductor left in a Maharashtra-bound train.
Even as six special teams were sent to various districts within the State and to Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and the video grabs of the abductors were circulated widely on social media. It is learnt that the Tirupati police received a call from a barber about the details of the boy. Sources said the abductor took the toddler to the Renuka Devi temple at Mahoor village in Nanded district of Maharashtra to get his head tonsured so that no one will identify the toddler.
The Tirupati police alerted Maharashtra senior police officials and Nanded district SP about the phone call. Simultaneously, a police team that was searching for the toddler in Adilabad district of Telangana was also alerted and they rushed to Nanded. The local police immediately reached the temple and nabbed the abductor and rescued the toddler, sources said.