Boy abducted from Bangalore rescued in Kerala

Three days after he was abducted from Koramangala in Bangalore, an eight-year-old boy was rescued by the police near the railway station in Thalassery in neighbouring Kerala.

Police said Chandan Reddy, a standard III student of Chinmaya Mission School in Bangalore, was playing on his bicycle in front of his house in Koramangala three days ago on Wednesday when was taken away by three unidentified persons in a car.

The abductors had reportedly sweet-talked Chandan Reddy, who had a craze for cars and cajoled him to get in for a drive.

Within an hour of the abduction, Chandan Reddy’s father Choodesh Reddy, a deputy manager in a private firm in Bangalore, received a call on his mobile phone from the kidnappers, who demanded a ransom of Rs 1 million for his son’s release.

Speaking in Hindi, the kidnappers warned Choodesh Reddy against contacting the police. But, when he did not hear from the abductors for the next few years, Choodesh Reddy approached the police, which formed five teams to track down the boy.

The kidnappers, who were in regular touch with Choodesh Reddy, initially asked him to bring the money to Mangalore, but later kept changing the locations. Finally, the kidnappers asked Choodesh Reddy to come to the railway station at Thalassery in Kerala on Saturday.

The police, who were hot on the abductors’ trail, traced the phone calls to various coin telephone booths in coastal regions of Kerala.

The Bangalore police, which was co-ordinating with its Kerala counterparts, shared the information with Thalassery police. On Saturday, the Thalassery police swooped on the railway station. But, the kidnappers, who had apparently sensed the police operations, abandoned the boy a few metres away and fled.

Fisherfolk, who noticed the boy, took him to the police station. Chandan Reddy, who is the only son of Choodesh Reddy and Chandrika, was finally united with his parents.