Class-6 student kidnapped from outside school, freed; ex-teacher among 2 held
BATHINDA : A Class-6 student was abducted by two men from outside his school in the city on Wednesday and was freed after police gave the accused an hourlong chase.
The police arrested the two alleged kidnappers, Jaidev Singh of Paras Ram Nagar in Bathinda and Baljit Kumar of Sirsa in Haryana. Two .12 and .315 bore pistols and three cartridges were recovered from them. Somil Arora (12), a student of St Joseph School, Civil Lines, was kidnapped at about 12 noon soon as soon as he came out of his class to go home.
Inspector general of police (IGP, Bathinda zone) MS Chhina said Jaidev Singh asked the school van driver to send the child with him claiming to be a family member. The child went with them not suspecting anything foul.
The IGP said the accused took the child in a car bearing registration number PB 03 A 0660 towards Dabwali in Sirsa and made call to the child’s grandfather ML Arora, who owns a private school, demanding ₹50 lakh ransom.
Jaidev used to work as a craft teacher at the same school and was removed eight months ago.
“After getting information from the child’s grandfather, the police started tracking the mobile phone of the accused and alerted Rama Mandi and Sangat police stations,” he said.
As a police party tried to stop the car near Gurthari village, the accused allegedly opened fire at the cops who retaliated. Then they drove the car towards Kuti village where the speeding vehicle entered the paddy fields.
The accused tried to flee from the spot but were nabbed by police with the help of villagers. A cop suffered injury in his hand as he tried to stop the car while another received injury after getting hit with a brick.