CHENNAI: A Class 11 boy who was allegedly kidnapped by his father’s former employee was rescued by the city police within four hours on Friday. The 16-year-old boy, a resident of Mudichur, was kidnapped from Tambaram on Friday morning. The accused were identified as Hariharan (21), a resident of Ulundurpet, Sarath Kumar (29), of Dindigul, and Vignesh (20), of Tirunelveli.
Police said the boy’s father Thangaraj owns a restaurant at Mudichur where Hariharan had worked a few months ago. Hariharan was fired from the job soon after the lockdown. Sarath Kumar owned the car used for kidnapping while Vignesh was a close friend of Hariharan.
“The boy was driving a moped to nearby saloon around 10 am. The kidnappers were waiting along the road since 6.30 am. When the boy crossed, Vignesh jumped out of the vehicle and threatened the boy to get inside the car,” said a police officer. When the police checked CCTV footage at the spot, they also saw Hariharan getting out of the car and threatening the boy, after which they were seen boarding the car. Hariharan subsequently phoned Thangaraj demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh.
However, Thangaraj informed the police who immediately formed special teams to nab the kidnappers.
“We through the CCTV footage and identified the vehicle. We suspected that they would be taking the GST road and informed the checkposts along the road,” said B Sagadevan, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Selaiyur).
One assistant commissioner, three inspectors and ten constables were involved in the operation. The kidnappers’ location was last traced near Maraimalai Nagar in Chengalpattu district, said the police adding that they deployed four vehicles to nab the culprits. The kidnappers sped from the spot after noticing the police vehicles. “We nabbed them after a long hot chase,” said Sagadevan who was also in one of the police vehicles. The boy was rescued around 2 pm. All three accused were remanded in judicial custody.