3-year-old kidnapped for ransom

By Our Correspondent

Bhubaneswar: A three-year-old boy was on Wednesday abducted allegedly for ransom while returning from a kindergarten at Rourkela in Orissa’s Sundergarh district, nearly 450 km from here.

The incident took place, when Sohan, son of an industrialist, Mr Sandeepan Gautam, was being escorted by his caretaker in a vehicle after the school hours.

A group of around 5 unidentified miscreants waylaid them and whisked away the kid in a black coloured Scorpio van after assaulting his escort Suresh Mahanandan.

Suresh alerted the local people by raising an alarm. But the abductors scared away the onlookers by brandishing revolvers, the police said.

The abduction was carried out in broad-day light at a busy thoroughfare of Rourkela town.

Later, the van bearing Bihar registration number sped away towards Biramitrapur, which borders Jharkhand.

Though the police and the victim’s family members were tightlipped about the incident for security of the kid, sources said Mr Gautam had reportedly later received a call from the kidnappers demanding a ransom
of Rs 40 lakh.

The police sprang to action soon after getting the information about it.

The police reportedly traced the ransom call to a Vodafone mobile number in Udit Nagar area of Rourkela town.

Soon the area was surrounded by the policemen and raids were conducted at several places in and around the region.

The police has reportedly located the mobile phone owner and was interrogating him, a
senior police officer requesting anonymity told this newspaper.

The entire border with Jharkhand has been sealed and all the vehicles passing in the Rourkela-Biramitrapur road and at the Jharkhand border were being thoroughly checked.

The police suspects hand of a gang of kidnappers from Bihar in the incident.

"We are probing the case", the investigating officer in Raghunathpalli police station, Abani Kumar Sahu told this newspaper.

This is the first case of child abduction for ransom in Orissa.