A woman who had come all the way from Darbhanga in Bihar to meet a man she had befriended over phone received a rude shock when her seven-month-old son was allegedly kidnapped from New Delhi Railway station by the same man.
However, sustained efforts by police bore fruit when the boy was rescued from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly area almost 20 days after his kidnapping on June 5, police said today.
The accused, Manjeet Chauhan, a water tanker driver who had kidnapped the boy on June 5 was arrested on Tuesday. His friend Raju, with whom he was planning to sell the boy has also been arrested.
During interrogation, Chauhan disclosed that when he joined as a water tanker driver, he was given a mobile phone by his employer in which the number of Arti, the child's mother, was saved.
He called Arti and introduced himself as a friend of Amit, a relative of her who earlier had the phone and started talking to her.
"He developed friendship with Arti and induced her to come to Delhi. On June 5 when she boarded a train from Darbhanga to Delhi and reached New Delhi Railway Station, he took her child and disappeared," a police official said.
He reached Maidangarhi village Delhi where his friend Raju was also working as a water tanker driver. Raju agreed to help him in selling the child and both left Delhi and visited many places but they could not sell the child.
Arti and her husband called him to return the child but he started demanding a ransom of Rs 20,000 and threatened them not to inform police otherwise they will kill the child.
When the couple said that they can't give the money as they are labourers and the accused were unable to sell the child, they left the boy with a woman at a bus stand in Moradabad area, asking her to keep an eye on him and fled.
"When they did not return, the woman reported the matter to Muradabad Kotwali and the boy was rescued," the official said.
