Chennai: It was a horrid 30 hours for B. Suganthi, which finally came to an end on Friday night at a suburban railway station after she reunited with her 11-year-old son, who was kidnapped for ransom, a day ago from near her residence at Porur. B. Arvind Raj (11), a class six student at a private school in Madanandapuram, Porur, was kidnapped on Thursday evening when he was returning home from his school.
On Friday night, special teams of the city police rescued the child and arrested the accused, E. Bala Mahendran (25), an engineering graduate. “At 4 pm on Thursday, I received a call. The caller on the other end told me that my son is in his possession and he needs a ransom of Rs 50 lakh,” Suganthi said. The kidnapper made her son speak to her to confirm that he was indeed in his possession. The caller told Suganthi that he would call her back on Friday around 2 pm and asked her to keep the ransom amount ready.
Suganthi’s husband Balaji, a manager at a private construction firm in Porur couldn’t believe what was happening. “I initially thought it was a prank. To be honest, I don’t have that much money in the first place,” Balaji said. A few hours later, the couple was granted audience with the city police commissioner at his office in Vepery where they explained the situation. Three special teams headed by deputy commissioners swung into action to trace the child and the suspects.
As the teams led on all possible leads, the family waited at the police commissioner’s office. On Friday, the caller reached at the same time asking Suganthi if the cash is ready. “I told him that we have arranged for Rs 2 lakh and that was all we could afford. He accepted and told that he would get back in the evening,” Suganthi said. Later in the evening, the caller told Suganthi to bring the money to the Central railway station where he asked her to take a train to Arakkonam. The cops meanwhile were stationed at every station along the route. When Suganthi reached the Hindu college railway station, she told the caller that she won’t move an inch and he collect the money and let her son free as per the cops’ advice.
“The idea was to get him out in the open and nab him. We took a calculated risk. We have done it before,” said additional commissioner (north & west), V.A. Ravikumar said. Suganthi was asked to climb up the railway overbridge (ROB) there and asked to drop the cash bag from there. “Hesitantly, I did as told by him as he had still not handed over my son to me,” Suganthi said. As soon as the suspect came to pick up the cash bag, a police team pounced on him and took him in custody.
The child, hands and legs tied up and gagged was rescued from the backseat of a car parked a few metres from the railway station. Arvind Raj and the ransom amount were handed back to the family members. The accused was remanded to judicial custody. Hunt is on for his accomplice, Imran, police said.
