Child abducted from central rly station rescued within hours

CHENNAI: A one-and-a-halfyear-old child kidnapped from a West Bengal couple at the Chennai Central Railway station on early Sunday morning by two men was rescued within hours in Ennore after an auto driver alerted local police about suspicious passengers in his vehicle. The two men were arrested by Ennore Police.

Police sources said that the child belonged to Sujith Mondal and Sanjana Mondal of West Bengal, who work in the city. They were supposed to board a train to their hometown.

They were sleeping near the ticket counter with the child. When Sanjana woke up, she found the child missing after which they started looking for the child frantically before approaching the railway police.

Police perused the CCTV footage and found two men abducting the child and boarding the local train from Moore Market complex. Railway police counterparts and other police units were alerted.

Police sources said that the two men had got off at Ennore railway station and boarded an auto rickshaw along with the child. “We had earlier advised auto rickshaw drivers in our jurisdiction to alert us in case of any suspicious persons boarding their vehicle. This helped us here, as an auto driver alerted us about the two men with a child,” said a senior officer with Avadi police.

Ennore team led by Inspector MC Ramesh secured the two men, Karthik and Selvam — construction labourers from Tiruvottiyur — and handed the child to the railway personnel. “They do not have any previous cases. They had planned to sell the child,” a police official said.