Delhi: Cops pose as ragpickers, auto drivers to rescue 5-year-old

Earlier, a Delhi doctor — kidnapped by a west UP gang — was rescued after 12 days from a house in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh last week. Also, a man who had kidnapped a one-month-old child to sell him and buy drugs was also nabbed on Friday. There were two other similar kidnapping cases.

Posing as ragpickers and auto rickshaw drivers, a Delhi police team on Sunday rescued a five-year-old kidnapped boy and arrested a couple.

Asadul Islam, one of the kidnappers, was arrested from east Delhi. (HT Photo)

This is the fifth kidnapping case reported this week from Delhi.

Earlier, a Delhi doctor — kidnapped by a west UP gang — was rescued after 12 days from a house in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh last week. Also, a man who had kidnapped a one-month-old child to sell him and buy drugs was also nabbed on Friday. There were two other similar kidnapping cases.

In Sunday’s case, police said that on July 21(Friday), a woman informed police that her five-year-old child, a boy, who was playing outside her house was missing. The woman said they had received a ransom call of Rs 8 lakh, in which the caller had also threatened them not to inform the police.

DCP (Shahdara) Nupur Prasad said that the family arranged Rs 3 lakh and conveyed to the kidnappers that they would pay it. “One of the kidnappers asked them to hire an auto rickshaw and tell him the registration number of the vehicle, after which he would tell him where to drop the ransom money. An auto-rickshaw was arranged and one of our officials, constable Mohit, disguised as a driver went with the mother,” DCP Prasad said.

Explaining sequence of events, police said the kidnappers were constantly in touch with the woman and asked her to come to Apsara border flyover and drop the money at the flyover. Police officers dressed as rag pickers were also posted at the flyover to watch the kidnappers.

“Our men was deployed around the flyover to keep watch on the activities of the kidnappers. Apart from this, some other areas were also being tracked by the surveillance team. The complainant later again received a call from one of the alleged kidnappers and was told to go to Anand Vihar Railway station after dropping the money where she would find her child,” Prasad said.

Police said a team, that was tracking the money, nabbed one of the kidnappers when he had come to take the ransom money. “The woman dropped the money on the Surya Nagar side of Apsara border bridge. A team, was keeping an eye on the activity of the kidnappers. One person came to collect the ransom money and as he picked the money, the police team warned him to stop but he start running toward the Surya Nagar side along with the ransom money. There was a chase and our team arrested him,” said an officer.

During interrogation, the man said his name was Asadul Islam and that he had kept a child with his wife’s cousin. A police team reached the house in Tahirpur and found the child. Asadul confessed that he was in debt and planned to make some quick money by kidnapping the child from his neighbourhood.