Hyderabad, February 05: The abductor of a 11-year-old boy who was kidnapped from his school yesterday was caught by the police in less than 24 hours today.
An auto driver, Shaik Ahmed, had kidnapped the boy for a ransom of Rs. 2 lakh.
He was caught when he came near Langer Houz to collect the ransom amount from the boy’s family.
According to police, the boy Pratik Gupta is studying in class VI in St Mary’s school at Secunderabad. His father, Sanjay Gupta, works with a tyre dealer at Ranigunj and the family are residents of Hasmathpet in Bowenpally.
Pratik’s father had hired an auto to ferry him to and fro from school. But yesterday the regular auto failed to come. The school authorities consulted with Pratik’s parents and then sent him home in another auto.
“Mid-way the auto driver, Shaik Ahmed diverted the auto to another route. He thought of earning money as he was facing financial problems,” Gopalpuram police sub-inspector K Ramesh said. Ahmed is a resident of Krishna Nagar in Jubilee Hills. Ahmed shifted the boy to his sister’s house at Borabanda and introduced him as his friend’s boy.
Then he took Sanjay’s mobile number from the boy, and told him that his son had been abducted. The first call was made around 5.55 p.m yesterday, police said. Ahmed called again a couple of times from various telephone booths and demanded Rs.2 lakh as ransom.
Meanwhile, special teams of police and Task Force sleuths launched a search in the city and also alerted their Cyberabad counterparts to track down the abductor.
Today morning, Ahmed called Sanjay and asked him to come near Pillar No 78 of PVNR Expressway to hand over the money and take the boy.
Policemen in plain clothes kept watch in the nearby areas but at the last minute, Ahmed changed the location of meeting to Pillar No 102.
“Around 12 noon, Ahmed came to the said spot to take the money but he was caught. He came in another auto and kept Pratik in the vehicle which was parked nearby. Pratik was rescued without any harm,” Ramesh said.
—-Agencies