Boy kidnapped for ransom from Rajasthan rescued in Gurugram
Police said that an alert truck driver at the toll plaza near Nunhera had first spotted the boy with the four men, and informed a patrolling police team
A 17-year-old boy who was kidnapped for ransom from Ganganagar in Rajasthan on Thursday escaped from his kidnappers in Nunhera village in Sohna and was rescued by the Gurugram Police at 3.30am on Friday, police said.
The boy’s four kidnappers who were hunting him in the fields around the village fled when they saw a police team approaching, police added. An alert truck driver at the toll plaza near Nunhera had first spotted the boy with the four men, and suspecting something was amiss, informed a patrolling police team led by inspector Jagjit Singh, said investigators.
“The boy’s father is an affluent farmer in Kaneti, Ganganagar city in Rajasthan. The four men kidnapped him in a black Hyundai Creta in Rajasthan, tied him below the rear seat, and drove 450km to Sohna. They were prepared to kill the boy and dump his body in the Aravalli hills if his father did not give them ₹27 lakh,” said a police officer associated with the case.
“We spotted several trucks haphazardly parked on the road near the toll plaza while their drivers rested nearby. We directed the drivers to remove the trucks. One of the drivers told us he had seen a boy with four men inside a black Creta that had stopped at the nearby Sadabahar hotel for tea. The driver suspected that the boy had been kidnapped. The hotel owner confirmed the presence of a black Creta, four men and a boy. The hotelier also said that the four men had run into the nearby fields of betel leaves and were searching for someone with torches, which further alarmed us. We immediately launched a manhunt,” said inspector Jagjit Singh, station house officer of the Sadar Sohna police station.
The police team’s search took them to Nunhera village, at least 1km away from the hotel.
“A villager told us that a terrified boy had banged on his door and taken shelter at his house. We rescued the boy and learnt that the men who had reached the village looking for him had fled after spotting a police vehicle approaching,” SHO Singh said.
The boy told police that he was kidnapped from Ganganagar at 5pm on Thursday and brought to Sohna in the black Creta. Two of the kidnappers got down near the toll plaza and went to the hotel to have tea, while the two who were guarding him inside the car dozed off, said police. The boy asked them to free him so that he could relieve himself, police added.
The boy went into the betel leaf fields and waited for the two in the car to doze off again. When they did, he ran, said police. The hotel owner told police that the two who were having tea left after 10-15 minutes. Police suspect that the two men sleeping in the car never realised the boy had fled until the two who were having tea returned, investigators said.
The Ganganagar City Police, who had registered a kidnapping case on Thursday, reached Sohna late on Friday and the Gurugram Police handed over the boy to them.