Kidnapping that wasn’t: When ‘reach in 5 minutes’, was heard as ‘Rs 5 lakh ransom’

Scolded by family members, a Class 6 student left home for a few hours, prompting his parents to approach the police fearing a kidnap and the “ransom” amount being Rs 5 lakh

A class 6 student left his home on Tuesday triggering kidnap fears and confusion.

The Class 6 boy made a call to his father from a daily wage earner’s phone (File photo)

The boy left his home in Chhajarsi and travelled 12 kilometres to Bisrakh in Greater Noida after he was allegedly scolded by his uncle. The boy allegedly pretended that he had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom of ₹5 lakh from his family, police said. The family, however, claimed that this was a “miscommunication” and that he had, in fact, called to say he would be back home in “five minutes”.

The police said the boy is a class 6 student of a private school in the area and he left home around noon on Monday.

The boy’s father said, “My older brother scolded him for stealing ₹100 from our shop on Monday. On his way back from school, he ate ‘chhole bhature’ from a roadside shop outside his school. There, he met a youth from the neighbourhood and took a lift from him on his motorcycle to Bisrakh,” the boy’s father said.

The father, a trader, said on reaching Bisrakh, the boy made a call to his father from a daily wage earner’s phone. “He told us that he would be home in five minutes. However, we thought that he had been kidnapped and was asking us for ₹5 lakh as ransom. It was a case of miscommunication,” the father said.

However, by then, the family was already worried and they informed the police about the ‘kidnapping’. They claimed that the whole affair was sorted out only after the boy reached home.

Police said the boy left home of his own volition and pretended to be kidnapped and was asking for a ransom as well.

“After the family reached out to us, we started tracing the number from which the boy had called. It was switched off. When it was switched on later, we got in touch with the man who owned it. He told us that he remembered the boy and he directed the police team to the boy’s location. The boy was found wandering nearby,” Akhilesh Tripathi, station house officer, Phase 3 police station, said.

Police said the boy had got the phone from the man saying he was lost and wanted to call home. The boy had deliberately switched off the phone after making the call, a police officer said.

“We brought him home after that and handed him over to his family,” said the SHO. No case was registered in this regard.