7-year-old hostage tricks abductors, returns to Bangalore

The presence of mind shown by a seven-year-old boy from Bangalore, who had been kept hostage in Gwalior, helped police trace the abductors and reunite him with his parents.

Little did Gautham Krishna, the son of a tiles traderin Bangalore, realize that he was giving a vital clue to the police when he managed to sneak up to the sleeping abductors while in captivity in Gwalior, pull out their mobile phone and call his father.

The moment Gautham established contact with his father’s mobile, the mobile phone tower in Gwalior sent an unmistakable clue to the police on the abductors’ whereabouts. Immediately, the Gwalior police swooped on thehideout, apprehended the abductors and freed the child, who had been held in their captivity since April 27. The boy was flown to Bangalore on Friday, much to the relief and delight of his doting parents.

Joint Commissioner of Bangalore City Police M CNarayana Gowda told reporters that it was the boy’s presence of mind that helped police track down theabductors.The kidnap drama had begun on April 27 when Gauthamwas playing outside his house in Bangalore’s Cholanayakanahalli.

The main accused Murari, a former employee of his father Chakravarthi, took the unsuspecting boy to the railway station in Bangalore and took him away to Gwalior by train.After reaching Gwalior, Murari and his accomplice Vinod Kumar, telephoned Chakravarthi on April 29 and demanded a ransom of Rs 70 million. Later, the ransom amount was brought down to Rs 20 million. Chakravarthi offered to pay the abductors Rs 3 million afterselling his house and pleaded with them not to harm his son.

The police traced the call to a telephone booth inGwalior, but were unable to zero in on the exact location of the abductors’ hideout. The Bangalore police, meanwhile, alerted their counterparts inGwalior.Even as the Gwalior police were trying to locate the abductors in areas in the vicinity of the telephone booth, the call Chakravarthi received from his son was traced to a mobile phone tower in Gwalior that helpedthe police track down the abductors.

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore after his release, an elated Gautham said his captors did not harm in anyway and were giving him food and water.