CHENNAI: A three-year-old boy in the company of his parents and siblings, went missing from the crowded Chennai Central suburban railway station (Moore Market Complex) on Sunday, raising suspicion that he could have been kidnapped.
Murugamuthu (37) and Rathi (28), both construction workers, had just arrived from their native Tuticorin by Pearl City Express at the Egmore Station with their three sons to spend the summer holidays at their relatives’ place in New Washermenpet.
Transiting through MMC, Murugamuthu and his children had bought milk at the Aavin booth inside the station and were walking towards a suburban train when one of his sons, Sridhar, went missing.
The devastated couple and their family began a frantic search all over the city, including the Egmore and Central stations.
“He was a playful kid who wouldn’t cry even in the company of strangers. Someone could have given him a chocolate and taken him away. Since he went missing in a space of two minutes, the police suspect kidnapping,” said Sridhar’s maternal uncle, Diwakar.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) are currently investigating the case, even as no headway has been made in the alleged kidnap of a six-month-old baby at Chennai Central two months ago.
The key problem faced by the police in these cases is the lack of sufficient CCTV cameras inside the MMC station.
“The only CCTV installed at the entrance shows the kids and their parents entering. Beyond that we don’t have any visual evidence,” a GRP source said.
Adding to the maze of complexities, there was a mad rush at MMC station on Sunday morning as trains were re-routed to platform 11 of Chennai Central due to a rail fracture between MMC and Basin Bridge junction. “The crowd was a contributing factor to the child going missing,” the source added.