THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Beware. This is the photograph of a kidnapper at Chirayinkeezhu who targets our children,” screams a viral WhatsApp message that comes with the photograph of a paan-chewing migrant who resembles villains in movies. The local police under Chirayankeezhu SI went from migrant labour camps to the streets to find whether such a person existed, but they could find none. This is an example of hoax messages on an imaginary kidnapping racket that was earlier popular in Malabar and now has moved to the capital.
“Not even a single case on organised interstate kidnapping racket has been recorded anywhere in the state in recent times. The missing of a seven-year-old named Rahul in Alappuzha in 2005, probed by the CBI was the only mysterious kidnapping case police till date. Facebook and WhatsApp is being flooded with hoax messages prompted by insensitive people,” said an officer attached to the Anti- Human Trafficking wing of the state police. Lekshmi D of Anthiyoorkonam does not allow her three-year-old twin daughters to roam around the neighbourhood after the hoax messages.
“The children used to go to the temple near the house with older school kids here but now I don’t send them out. On December 5, my sister-in-law sent me a WhatsApp message of a kidnapping racket. I was told by people that there was nothing to fear but parents can’t take that chance,” she said. The beggar mafia kidnapping children from the lower middle class used to be reported in the past, but even these incidents stopped in Kerala, they said. “Over 90 per cent of 120 child kidnapping and abduction cases are that of underaged girls eloping with lovers. The rest are abductions for ransom or due to rivalry with parents,” the official said. In spite of a recent advisory by the state police chief, the scare has not died down in the state.
