Noida: After ransom call, boy left in bus with soft drink, dad’s phone number

GREATER NOIDA: A five-year-old boy kidnapped in Moradabad on Friday was found sitting by himself on a UP Roadways bus near the Kaushambi bus stand in Ghaziabad on Saturday morning.
The kidnapper had demanded a ransom of Rs 30 lakh from Gaurav Kumar, the boy’s father, but seemed to have changed his plans and abandoned the child in the bus with a soft drink bottle and a slip with his father’s phone number.The driver of the bus (UP78FN4762) found the phone number on the slip and reached Kumar.
Police said Kumar was a collection agent with a finance company.
The boy had been missing since 1.30pm on Friday and a manhunt had begun soon after. He was allegedly kidnapped when he stepped out alone and went to a nearby shop.
The kidnapper called thrice in the evening – first asking for Rs 30 lakh ransom and two more times to threaten Kumar against informing the police. Moradabad police said that the phone numbers were continuously tracked and they were close to nabbing the accused.
The hunt ended prematurely around 7am on Saturday when the bus staff reported to the cops that an unaccompanied boy was in the bus.
Vikal Bhati, the Roadways driver, said the bus had halted at Kaushambi for around half an hour and when he started to drive, a child seated inside the bus began to wail. The kidnapper, it appears, had boarded the bus, left the child there and left.
“Passengers told us (him and the conductor) that someone had left the child in the bus. We asked some commuters if the child was with them. However, everyone denied, and when we tried talking to the kid, we saw him holding a slip in his hand that had two phone numbers. The boy’s father picked up one of the numbers and requested me to take him to Moradabad and offered to pay for the journey. I told him the bus was destined for Moradabad and we would bring the boy there. However, I sensed something suspicious and decided to hand over the boy to the nearest police chowki,” Bhati said.
Ghaziabad police informed their Moradabad counterparts about the boy after which a team of police, along with the boy’s father, arrived in Ghaziabad and took the child home.
Moradabad SP Amit Anand told TOI that the kidnapper had possibly sensed police were closing in. “Inputs were analysed from different sources and due to excessive police pressure, the criminal apparently left the child in the bus.
The boy’s father has shared many inputs, including family disputes, and his nature of work. We are working on different angles,” he said, adding it didn’t seem that the kidnapper had hurt the boy in any manner.