BENGALURU: In a late night and swift operation, the Banaswadi sub-division police rescued an 11-year-old boy, within hours of his kidnap on Tuesday. After luring him to a nearby swimming pool, she handed him over to her brother-in-law, who works as a security guard at a farmhouse between Hebbagodi and Jigani areas. The kidnappers made a ransom call for Rs 50 lakh, around 8.30pm Tuesday.
The parents approached Hennur police at 9.30pm, and two police teams were formed. Police tracked down the kidnappers, and scaled the 15-ft compound wall of the farmhouse with the support of their police jeeps. They arrested the guard and rescued the boy around 2am Wednesday. At the time of arrest, the guard was heavily drunk, and the boy was unharmed.
The victim, a Class 5 student and resident of Horamavu, is the son of a BMTC bus driver, Subash. He went missing around 5.30pm Tuesday, when the woman took him to the farm in an auto. The accused is Gourav Singh from Nepal. Police are on the lookout for the woman. “The accused has been living in the city with his family for 20 years. We are yet to find out since when he was working on the farm,” DCP (East) Dr Bheemashankar S Guled said.
DCP’s advice
Deputy Commissioner of Police Guled advised parents to create awareness among their children to refrain from talking or going along with strangers. Kids should be repeatedly told not to accept anything from strangers. Schools also have a big role in educating students about the risks of listening to strangers. Owners of farmhouses have to be careful about the guards whom they appoint. In the present case, if something had happened to the boy, the owner would have been in trouble, the DCP added.