Hyderabad: Abducted child rescued in 24 hours

Hyderabad: A five-year-old boy who was kidnapped was reunited with his parents within less than 24 hours of his disappearance because he managed to remember his father’s mobile number.

According to the police, Md Afroz, the victim, is a student of LKG. On Thursday evening, he was lighting crackers outside his home, while his parents were inside. A man named Srinu was passing by when he noticed that the boy was alone and decided to exploit the opportunity. He approached the boy and offered to buy him more crackers and some toffees. The child was tempted by his offer and agreed to go along with him.

After a while, Afroz’s parents noticed that he was missing and they filed a complaint with the police.

Srinu took the boy to Medchal, where they spent the night at a bus shelter. On Friday morning, Srinu spoke to a lorry guide near the Medchal check post and told him that he had a child with him whom he planned to sell for a handsome price. The lorry guide immediately alerted the local police, who traced Srinu and the boy  and took them to the Medchal police station.

V. Prasanna Kumar, the Inspector of Kukatpally, said, “When asked about his parents, the boy was able to tell us his father’s mobile number. This made it easy for us to track down his parents.”

The police also found out that Srinu had been inebriated when he had kidnapped the boy. He and the boy had travelled to Medchal by auto-rickshaw and bus. He had not bought any food, except a packet of snacks, for the boy to eat. The victim told the cops that Srinu had hit him when he had started crying.

“He was still under the effect of alcohol when he was apprehended. We can get more details about his motives once he is taken into custody. He has been produced before the court and sent to remand,” the Inspector said. Afroz has been handed over to his parents.