To keep him quiet, abductors gave games, snacks to child

NEW DELHI: “Arrest the third accused otherwise I will not go to school,” said the fiveyear-old boy after being rescued from the clutches of his kidnappers.

The investigators claimed that the kid was intelligent and kept an eye on every single kidnapper during his 12 day of captivity.

A senior police officer privy to the investigation told Millennium Post that after the rescue, the boy thought that two persons were arrested so he called a senior official and told him that there was a third person who came to the flat where he was kept as a captive.

“He told us that he will not go to school if he is not arrested. We told him that we have nabbed him already,” said the police official.

According to the police, the accused downloaded games on their phone and gave it to the child so that he remained busy playing the games and did not think about his home.

Talking about the days of the minor kid with the kidnappers, the police official said that on the first day the child cried but soon the criminals downloaded the games and given them to him.

“The main plan was to make sure that the child does not cry as it will alert the neighbors so they gave him potato chips, Frooti and Maggi,” said the investigator.

Ravi, the accused who died during the encounter was the person who talked harshly with the child and on the day before the rescue the child was crying and told his kidnappers that he wanted to go home on Wednesday to meet his parents.

“We wanted the child to be rescued. It was our priority and when the child clung on to me, that was happiest moment of my life,” said DCP, Dr G Ram Gopal Nayak.

The accused did not want to change their hideouts because they suspected that it could lead to their arrest.

The accused during interrogation claimed that they have decided to take the ransom in two installments of Rs 30 lakh and for the first, they wanted to take it near Cross River mall.

There were reports that a woman used to visit the flat where the child was kept but the police officer claimed that during interrogation the accused claimed that no one visited the flat.

“We came to know about the fact and we have called the woman for questioning and after the investigation, we will come to know about her role in the case,” said a police official.

When asked whether the accused had first planned a robbery and then changed their decision to kidnap the boy, a senior police official denied such information.

Meanwhile, sources also claimed that one of the kidnappers Pankaj had, on one occasion, even slapped the child when he was crying and somehow the glass carrying milk fell down.

However, his partner Nitin knew that the child had to remain with them peacefully, so that he and his partners would have some chance of getting the ransom some money.

“Nitin used to provide clothes and other items to the child. Recently, he had even purchased some clothes from Krishna Nagar area for the boy,” said a police source. NEW DELHI: With the kidnapped child having been rescued and safely staying with his family, police recall how they planned a foolproof operation and decided to barge into the flat where the kidnappers were holed up along with the five-year-old.

“When we apprehended Nitin, one of the kidnappers from Seemapuri, our priority was to know the structure of the flat. Nitin told us that the child is kept in a separate room. We then calculated the distance of the entrance door from the room where the child was kept. Nitin told us that his associates had arms, so we had no scope of taking wrong decisions,” said Joint CP (Crime) Alok Kumar.

The Crime Branch team quickly drew a rough sketch of the flat, so that the team knew the basic structure of the house if there was to be a shootout.

They also calculated how quickly the cops could reach the child’s room to secure him from the kidnapers in case they tried to hold the boy hostage.

It was only after the crime team, accompanied by senior officers, secured the build- ing and took position at every possible point from where they could aim at the kidnappers, that they knocked the door.

“We knew the operation would last a few seconds. But we could not afford to do anything wrong. Any wrong decision would have compromised the child’s security,” Alok Kumar said.

After the wooden door was opened by the kidnapper, the iron door was forcefully opened and the police team retaliated when they were under attack by the kidnappers’ firing. This killed Ravi and injured Pankaj, while and the child was rescued safely.