Boy rescued within six hours of kidnapping

Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday rescued a nine-year-old boy unharmed with-in six hours of his kidnapping from Nirakarpur area of Khurda district. The policemen also arrested seven persons, including two women, involved in the kidnapping.

The accused were identified as Subhrakant Mohapatra (22) alias Basuni, Somnath Das (21), Chin-maya Kumar Nayak (22), Sandip Routray (22), Sagar Nayak (21), Sujata Jena (19) and Nibedita Das (20). The main conspirator in the case, Subhrakant, is the cousin of victim Pratyush’s tuition teacher and also belongs to the victim’s village Panchagaon under Airfield police limits in Bhubaneswar.

“Police received information regarding the kidnapping at around 10:30 am on Tuesday. It was prima facie ascertained that the kidnapping was committed for ransom. There is a danger to the child in such a sensitive case so we carried out an intense operation constituting four teams,” said Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh.

Singh said the victim was finally rescued unharmed from the rented accommodation of accused Som-nath Das and Chinmaya at Nirakarpur in Khurda district.

The accused, who kept the child captive at Nirakarpur, were also arrested by police.

The prime accused Subhrakant has close acquaintance with victim Pratyush’s family. Subhrakant, who was aware that the minor’s father Arta Ranjan Kalia had received a large sum of money by selling a plot in the area, executed the kidnapping to extort ransom from him.

As per the plan, while Pratyush was returning home from school on Tuesday morning, Subhrakant kidnapped the victim on the pretext of taking him to the doctor for treatment.

The accused persons then telephoned the victim’s parent asking them to pay ransom. They threatened to kill the minor if the ransom was not paid.

Meanwhile, after handing over the child to other accused persons, Subhrakant returned to the village and narrated a false story before the victim’s parents that the kidnappers took away the minor boy by threatening him with a gun.

However, the police suspected Subhrakant and succeeded in rescuing the victim by tracking the phone number of Subhrakant and other accused.