Notorious child kidnappers held in Vizag

Police rescue four children out of five who were sold by the gang; accused were active in city since 2016

August 24, 2019 12:55 am | Updated 07:41 am IST - VISAKHAPATNAM

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner R.K. Meena addressing a press conference at the Police Conference Hall in Visakhapatnam on Friday.

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner R.K. Meena addressing a press conference at the Police Conference Hall in Visakhapatnam on Friday.

ñThe Visakhapatnam City Police arrested four persons who were allegedly part of a notorious child-kidnapping gang on Friday.

The four persons, including two women, are accused of kidnapping five children and selling them for sums ranging from ₹50,000 to ₹1.20 lakh. Four of the five children have been rescued and will soon be reunited with their parents, police said.

Police also arrested three persons who had allegedly bought the kidnapped children from the gang and two more who allegedly helped the kidnappers broker the deals.

The accused persons have been identified as B. Nagamani, said to be the kingpin, J. Anand alias Chandu alias Sekhar, T. Sumanth Kumar, and M. Lakshmi, all residents of Visakhapatnam. Two other persons named M. Jyothika and Ch. Devi were also arrested on charges of mediating for the gang.

Addressing the media, Commissioner of Police R.K. Meena said that their investigation into the disappearance of a child at the Simhachalam shrine, which was reported to the police on August 5 this year, led them to the child kidnapping gang.

On August 5, a woman named N. Kanthamma from Paderu lodged a complaint with the Gopalapatnam Police Station stating that her two-year-old son N. Abhiram was kidnapped by Sekhar, who was known to her. The incident took place near Simhachalam, when she had gone to attend nature’s call. After registering a case, police took the accused into their custody and rescued the toddler with the help of CCTV footage.

“Further investigation into the case revealed that Sekhar was not operating alone, and that there was a child kidnapping gang active in the city since 2016,” police said.

Five cases

Police Commissioner R.K. Meena said that the gang made its first kidnap in 2016. Nagamani, the kingpin of the gang who also allegedly runs a flesh racket, told her boyfriend Sumanth that her sister Satyavathi wanted a child as she was childless. Sumanth and Nagamani then hatched a plan to kidnap a child from a poor family and make easy money by selling the child to Satyavathi.In November 2016, the duo kidnapped an eight-month-old girl from a homeless family near VUDA Park and sold the baby to Satyavathi’s husband B. Rambabu for ₹50,000.

After the deed was done, Sumanth left for Vizianagaram to lie low for a while. Having tasted success with their first endeavour, the duo resolved to kidnap more children and sell them to people in order to make more money.

Pointing to the depravity of the accused, police said that in 2017, Sekhar, an auto-rickshaw driver from Arilova, sold his own three-year-old daughter to a man named Zianuddin for ₹1 lakh.

In July 2017, the duo kidnapped a girl from Arilova. Police immediately launched a massive manhunt. Worried that they would be arrested, the duo approached the police with the baby stating that they found her, the Commissioner said.

Again in November 2018, the duo kidnapped a two-year-old boy from Bheemili and sold him to Ch, Eswara Rao of Nakkapalle for ₹1.20 lakh. The law finally caught up with them when they kidnapped a child in Simhachalam, Mr. Meena said.

Modus operandi

DCP (Zone II) B. Uday Bhaskar said that the accused would conduct a recce at various areas in Sekhar’s auto-rickshaw before kidnapping a child. They would target children belonging to poor homeless families, aged below three years, so that they would not be able to identify their parents easily.

“Nagamani had many contacts as she runs a flesh trade racket. Through her WhatsApp, she would share photographs of the kidnapped children. She would tell buyers that the children are orphans, or have been abandoned by their parents, in order to convince the buyers to proceed with the deal,” Mr. Uday Bhaskar said.

Children in safe hands

Shyamala Rani, Chairperson of Child Welfare Committee, Visakhapatnam, said that buying children is a serious crime and added that the rescued children would initially be taken care of by the Child and Women Welfare Department.

“The children would later be handed over to their parents according to procedure,” she said.

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