Abducted boy found sleeping in RTC bus
Four-year-old M. Praveen who was abducted by an unknown person on Monday night from platform 44 of Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) was found sleeping on the middle seat of a TSRTC express bus heading towards MGBS from Miryalaguda on Tuesday night.
The bus driver-cumconductor and other passengers in the bus noticed the boy sleeping, Praveen was offered drinking water and snacks.
When the bus reached the MGBS, passengers and the driver came to know that the child was abducted. A few passengers and the driver immediately intimated the Afzalgunj police. The express bus started from Miryalguda with a single stop in
Nalgonda and then reached MGBS late at night. The driver informed us that he did not notice the kid and the person who abducted him.
The abductor might have panicked as the Afzalgunj police and the media channels flashed news about the child’s abduction displaying his photo and left him at Nalgonda bus stand and fled the scene, Ravinder Reddy, inspector of Afzalgunj police, said. Praveen was safe and healthy and his parents took him to their relative’s house in Balapur, he said.
“On the day of his abduction, we had already alerted and posted the picture of Praveen on MGBS staff’s WhatsApp group and also alerted and shared the same along with the CCTV footage collected by us from the MGBS at the time of abduction to other police stations in the city and districts. Soon he will be arrested,” the inspector said. “The abductor does not seem to be a human trafficker. There are two possibilities. Maybe he or one of his relatives is issueless and he might have decided to look after the kid as he was left alone on the platform,” he added.
It may be recalled that Praveen was abducted around 11 pm on Monday from platform number 44 when his father had gone to use the toilet. When his father Lakshman returned, he found his son missing. He rushed to the Afzalgunj police and lodged a complaint.
On checking the CCTV footage, the police found a middleaged man taking the child to the other side of the platform and alerted the nearby police station and the TSRTC staff.