Toddler kidnapped from Central rescued in four hours, couple held

An investigation is on to find out if they are part of any child trafficking syndicate. They were produced in a court and remanded in judicial custody.

Image used for representational purposes. (Express Illustrations)

CHENNAI:  Acting swiftly on a child missing complaint, the Government Railway Police (GRP) rescued a one-year-old boy who was kidnapped from the Chennai Central railway station early on Monday within four hours and arrested a couple from Jharkhand for the crime.

The boy, Ayush, and his parents Nandini Kanhar (18) and Lankeshwar Hajuripada (24) are from Kandhamal district in Odisha. They work in a juice shop in Tirupati. The family had reached Central station at around 11 pm on Sunday and were waiting to catch a train to Odisha. 

A couple from Jharkhand walking
away after kidnapping a one-year
-old boy from Central station | express

“The couple went to sleep on platform number 8. At around 2.30 am, Nandini woke up and found that her son was missing and searched for him. The couple then lodged a complaint,” said a police officer. A police team led by SI Sarala checked CCTV footage to look for clues. “We must have gone through 50 footage when we saw a couple walking out of the platform with the child. They went towards the autorickshaw stand,” said the police. The police identified the driver as M Pugazhendhi and found out from him that the suspects got down in Kundrathur.

“They asked me to drop them off on the road, far from their house. I left them and came back to the railway station. That is when I found out that the couple had kidnapped a baby. Along with the police team, I went back and searched for the baby,” said Pugazhendhi. The police team nabbed the accused, Prabhas Mandal (44) and his wife Namita (26) from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, and rescued the child.

After a preliminary investigation, police said the accused were working as construction labourers in the city. “Namita was planning to leave for her hometown and had come to the station with her husband. The couple befriended Ayush’s parents and decided to kidnap him as they did not have a child of their own,” said the police.

The couple had told the autorickshaw driver that they missed the train and would catch another train at night. An investigation is on to find out if they are part of any child trafficking syndicate. They were produced in a court and remanded in judicial custody.