Man kidnaps boy, later hands him over to cops

Hyderabad: A five-year-old boy who was abducted by an unknown man from Secunderabad Railway Station on June 20 returned safely to his mother. The man who abducted the boy approached Jeedimetla police on Thursday, claiming that he found him wandering at the railway station.

The suspect was taken into custody, and the boy was handed over to his mother.According to Secunderabad railway police, the child, Rapu Nikhil, from Chilkanagar in Uppal, was abducted by an unknown person while he was sleeping along with his grandmother on Platform 1 at Secunderabad railway station on the evening of June 20. Unable to locate the boy, his grandmother left the railway station and alerted her daughter through a neighbour about the missing boy on June 21.On the complaint of the boy’s mother, Rapu Rajeshwari, a daily wage labourer, Secunderabad Railway Police registered a boy-missing case on June 21 and verified the CCTV footage. They saw a man in a white shirt taking the boy out of the railway station.Police released his photos to media organisations on Wednesday, and on Thursday afternoon, the suspect, Sk Mahmood Ali, a worker at a resturant in Chintal, brought the boy to Jeedimetla PS, claiming that he spotted the boy wandering at Secunderabad railway station premises two days ago.

Jeedimetla police contacted Secunderabad railway police and informed the boy’s mother. When confronted by the police, Ali said that he was a divorcee and stayed at a restaurant in Chintal. On June 20, he reached Secunderabad railway station from Vijayawada on a train. He spotted the boy standing alone on the platform. Ali, who claimed to be in an intoxicated condition, bought the boy ice cream and later took him to Chintal to stay with him.

The boy was handed over to his mother through railway police. Ali was handed over to Secunderabad police for further probe. “We will have to question Ali to find out why he took away the boy and why he did not approach police till Thursday. We suspect that he went to police only after his photo was circulated in media,” said a Railway police officer.