In Lucknow there was a story of the horror of kidnapping that took place in the Alambagh on Thursday afternoon as two boys aged 12 years were kidnapped as they went home on their bicycles. The case had created panic in the neighbourhood because the captors had modernised their demands to release them on Friday morning at a price of Rs 10 lakh each. But rapid police measure secured the safe recovery of the children in ten hours.
The abduction in and of itself was not all that astonished investigators, but the background of the kidnapper. The accused, Vijay Sharma (22) of Mawaiya used to serve as a quack in the govt hospital of Sitapur and fled under pressure three months ago. It was to reinvent himself that he accepted a job in Pune last month, as a civil engineer, without a formal degree, only to give it up soon afterwards. On Sep 10, the company also filed a missing case in Pune against Sharma. Being greedy and impatient in receiving quick money, Sharma developed a crazy idea: to kidnap children and buy their freedom in exchange, stated the policemen.
Thursday.–On Thursday, Sharma noticed the boys at Alambagh. He dubiously wooed them with a promise to pay them Rs 50 in case they did a task which meant drinking a soft drink. I only saved myself, and it was another child, being with us, who refused the offer and went home.
The stranger, however, was believed by these two boys and was followed by them.
Sharma transported them to Kaiserbagh bus depot around evening to Lakhimpur Kheri and they spent the night at a petrol pump in Hargaon.
The nightmare of the families started off as the WhatsApp messages started coming through one of the phones of the boy on Friday morning. The furnishings of the kidnapper, as he arrived at Gola Gokarannath, upon the spot were prayers and food, as well, to the children. Once he had been visited, he insisted on some money as ransom per child after the visit and cited vehicles and land belonging to families as evidence that he had done his homework.
He even taught the boys on the phone to beg him to send money, lest he kill them, as he reiterated, the police said.
In the meantime Lucknow police was put on the move. The video of CCTV showed the suspect riding the boys on a bicycle. With the assistance of electronic tracking, a combined team of Alambagh police, surveillance and Cantonment police trailed Sharma. In an attempt to circumvent investigators, he would feed the children, would attend temples and would give hints that he had been sent on behalf of other people. Yet a look at the phone records showed no such network,” said ACP, Cantonment, Abhay Pratap Mall.
By Friday evening police trailed him up to Gola Gokarannath in Lakhimpur Kheri. Both children were saved in their unharmed condition and returned to their parents. Their cycle, left there at Mohan Hotel in Charbagh was recovered later. ACP Mall ensured that Sharma was acting on their own.
