In joint operation, cops from MP, UP rescue 14-year-old tribal girl, nab kidnapper who took her 900 km away
BHOPAL: A 14-year-old tribal girl who was kidnapped by a 22-year-old man from western Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district was rescued from a village 900 km away in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat district following a 16-hour police operation.
Two years back, 20-year-old Govind Naik, who hails from Auraiya district of central UP, came to Ranapur town of western MP’s Jhabua district, along with a group of street-side garment sellers and started living and trading there.
He slowly developed a friendship with a 12-year-old tribal girl who lived in the same locality, where Govind lived on rent.
Over a period of two years, the bond between Govind and the tribal girl deepened and finally he took her away on May 31.
By the time, the girl’s family realized that it was Govind who had taken her away, the duo had already reached Indore (150 km from Jhabua) and boarded a bus to Gwalior.
The matter was reported by the girl’s family to the Jhabua district police in the afternoon, after which two teams were formed and the hunt for the kidnapped girl started at around 4 pm and a case of kidnapping registered at Ranapur police station.
“We formed two police teams and started probing the matter. Knowing well that we would question his key contacts, Govind kept on telling them over phone that he was bound for Gujarat, despite being actually on the way to his home state UP. He kept telling his contacts that he was moving from Dahod to Godhra in Gujarat. Using sophisticated scientific investigation tools, the police tracked his live location in MP’s Guna district, which confirmed that he was headed to UP,” a senior Jhabua district police officer told TNIE on Saturday.
Both teams of the Jhabua police left to nab Govind and rescue the girl at 4 pm, but they were almost six-and-a-half hours behind him.
After alighting from the bus, Govind took the girl in another hired vehicle to adjoining UP, but instead of going to his home district, he went to Kanpur Dehat district, in the same central UP region, where his sister lives.
While the hunt for the kidnapped girl went on, unmindful that his location was being continuously updated by the Jhabua district police to their two teams, Govind continued to tell his contacts about travelling further into Gujarat for some important work.
He ultimately reached his sister’s village in Kanpur Dehat on May 31 and stayed there that night. With his location getting stabilized at one point, the Jhabua police from MP contacted their counterparts in central UP’s Kanpur Dehat who rescued the girl from the kidnapper’s sister’s village.
Govind, however, managed to escape, but was nabbed a few hours later from a neighbouring village, ultimately ending a successful police operation which started at 4 pm on May 31 and ended at around 8 am on June 1.
“The accused kept on telling his contacts that he was headed to Gujarat, just to hoodwink us, but the police turned much smarter and using the latest scientific and digital technology, kept on tracking his movement. It was subsequently with the help of UP police that the kidnapped girl was successfully rescued and the kidnapper too tracked and arrested,” Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district police superintendent Padam Vilochan Shukla said.
The rescued girl was subsequently brought back safely to her home in Ranapur (Jhabua) and reunited with her family. The arrested kidnapper is being questioned by police to ascertain whether he has a criminal past or is linked to any organized gang.
The cops are also probing the possibility of him being part of a girl trafficking racket.