Police rescue kidnapped boy, arrest culprit
In a joint operation, the Abids police and Maharashtra cops rescued a three-year-old boy who was kidnapped while playing on a pavement near Gandhi Bhavan in the city earlier last week.
The police arrested one Shyam Bheem Rao Solanki, 22, a stone cutter from Malegaon of Maharashtra, for allegedly kidnapping the child, Rudramani, and plotting to sell him, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said.
Rudramani is the son of M. Shiva Kumar and Ambika, construction workers from Bidar, Karnataka, who were staying with their son and two daughters, aged 12 and 9, at a pavement. Shiva was working at a hotel. The accused, posing as Raju, along with one Bhogi Ram, approached the family on February 7 and promised them work in Mumbai.
“Two days later, when the children were playing unattended near the escalator of Gandhi Bhavan Metro Station, Solanki kidnapped the child and walked to Afzalgunj and took shelter at the Musi huts, Kumar said.
Following a complaint from Shiva Kumar, the Abids police booked a kidnap case and deployed special teams, by which time Solanki had boarded a train from Secunderabad along with Rudramani and went to Sevagram in Maharashtra. From there, he went to Wardha by autorickshaw and boarded Vidarbha Express and alighted at Akola. He then travelled to Amanwadi, police said.
The police had identified him through CCTV footage and contacted Washim district superintendent of police Vasanth Paradesi. “The local police alerted village leaders, police parties and circulated videos and photos of the suspect and child. The local police then received information from one Rupesh Kandare, a soldier posted in Rajasthan, who was alerted about the suspect by his sister,” Anjani Kumar said, adding that a police team from Abids went to Amanwadi along with the local police, rescued Rudramani and arrested Solanki. The accused was produced before the court and sentenced to judicial remand.