CHENNAI: A day after a three-year-old girl was reported missing from Ayanavaram, the city police traced her in Tiruvannamalai and arrested a 35-year-old man for kidnapping the girl.
The accused, M Ramesh, a native of Kidapalayam near Polur in Tiruvannamalai had come to the city to visit his relative admitted at a hospital here, police said.
He told investigators that he was walking towards the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) around 2 am on Tuesday when he saw the child crying. He claimed that he thought she was homeless and took her along with him. The child’s parents, Karthik (26) and Kuppammal (24), natives of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh are platform dwellers and live at a makeshift tent on New Avadi Road.
Karthik who woke up around 6 am found his daughter Pavithra missing, after which he filed a complaint with the Ayanavaram police. Meanwhile, Ayanavaram cops apart from alerting police stations across the State also put out a message on Whatsapp with the picture of the girl. Police sources said a policeman in Kadaladi in Tiruvannamalai noticed the accused roaming with the child, and on inquiry it was found that the child did not belong to him.
The Ayanavaram police were alerted after which a team went to Tiruvannamalai and brought the child back along with the accused. Ramesh was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.