Hyderabad, February 24: The kidnap of a 20- month-old boy from Ramanthapur ended on a happy note with the toddler being rescued from the clutches of the kidnapper and restored to his parents here on Tuesday, a day after the abduction.
The accused, Beerappa, left the baby in a forest area after the Cyberabad police and their Karnataka counterparts chased him from his native village in Karnataka.
Police said Beerappa is a habitual offender and was involved in thefts in his village and also in the neighbouring areas of Tandur and Zaheerabad in our State.
The boy, Maheshwarlal, is the son of Hari Krishna, who runs a stove repair store and also drives an auto. Hari Krishna employed the accused, who identified himself as Srinu, only on Monday after the latter had accosted him at Koti and sought help.
Soon after joining the repair shop, the accused took the boy out on the pretext of going for a walk and fled.
Sources said the accused then reached the Imlibun bus stand and stayed in the dormitory there for an hour. “In the dormitory register, he left his address based on which we have alerted our counterparts in Karnataka. Simultaneously, our teams also went there with the sketch of the accused drawn with the description given by Hari Krishna,” an official said.
Locals of Mudole village in Gulbarga district of Karnataka identified the sketch to be that of Beerappa. In fact, when Beerappa went to the village earlier with the boy, the locals had questioned him about the boy following which Beerappa slipped out of the place.
“With our teams chasing him, Beerappa had left the infant in bushes at Rajoli village and fled.
The boy was brought safely to the city and handed over to his parents,’’ Uppal police inspector Satyanarayana Raju said.
Beerappa is yet to be nabbed.
–Agencies–