Tirupati: 7-year-old S. Nandini who was kidnapped from Tirumala on July 23, has been found. The police suspect that her kidnapper was either involved in child trafficking, or she wanted to make the girl beg for money.
The police received information about Nandini’s kidnapper through an anonymous tip-off. R. Shalini, the kidnapper, was detained at Vathuru in Bengaluru on Friday. The 34-year-old woman lives in C.V. Raman Nagar, in Bengaluru.
The kidnapping of Nandini last week became sensational news. The girl had been living with her parents Suresh and Dakshayani, both of whom worked at a tea shop, in Tirumala for over a year; she went missing on Sunday.
Nandini’s parents approached the Tirumala Police on Monday, and the police immediately checked the CCTV footage. They saw that the girl had been picked up by an unidentified saree-clad middle-aged woman, when she had gone to refill her water bottle, near the free accommodation. The police formed special teams in Tirumala and Tirupati to locate the girl at the earliest.
Speaking to media persons in Tirumala, Abhishek Mohanty, the Tirupati Urban SP, said “We gave the case vast publicity. 14 teams were deployed soon after receiving the complaint. We printed wall posters in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and English. This publicity helped us catch the kidnapper. We suspect that she may be involved in child trafficking, or she might have been planning to earn money by making the child beg. Further investigation will be carried out.” He added that Shalini was the mother of two boys.
Nandini is the second child to have been kidnapped from Tirumala hill. Last month, a one-year old was abducted near Golla Mandapam. The police have been successful at recovering both the children.
