CHENNAI: An eight-year-old boy from Palavedu village in Tiruvallur, S Hanish, was brutally murdered by his kidnappers and was dumped in a gunny bag along the Tada-Kalahasti Road in Andhra Pradesh. The boy had been missing since Saturday and police retrieved his body on Monday. Police said the kidnappers, Rekha and Ravanaiah, intended to sell the boy but got cold feet. Following the kidnappers’ arrest on Monday, Palavedu villagers staged a protest in front of Padhirivedu police station demanding strict action against the accused.
On Saturday, after returning from school, Hanish had gone to play in an empty ground nearby and never returned. “Upon realising Hanish had gone missing, the parents and villagers launched a wide search. Meanwhile, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, two youngsters informed us they had seen the boy with a woman, Rekha, who is Hanish’s neighbour,” a police official said. A complaint was then lodged at the Padhirivedu police station.
Rekha, along with Hanish, had been on a two-wheeler driven by a man, when they had an accident with an autorickshaw near the Tiruvallur-Andhra Pradesh border on Saturday night. The two youngsters, who were at the scene, noticed something was amiss with the boy, and upon enquiry, she told them they boy was being taken to her hometown with the permission of his parents. “We detained Rekha on Monday and based on her confession, we nabbed Ravanaiah, the two-wheeler driver,” police said.
Following preliminary investigation, police discovered that Rekha was part of a larger child abduction network. “The accused told us that, following the accident, Hanish got scared and started screaming while on the way to Andhra. As time passed, Hanish got more restless, and the accused were also worried about the youngsters who noticed them at the border. So they strangled the boy, slit his throat and dumped his body along the Tada-Kalahasti Road, “ police added. Following the arrest, the accused have been remanded in judicial custody.
One of the villagers who had taken part in the protest said, “Hanish’s family had informed the police about their missing child on Saturday. Still they remained lethargic and did not taken any serious action. Police’s inaction has caused Hanish’s death.”