Five persons including a woman were arrested in connection with the abduction of five-year-old Maulik Sahu, who was kidnapped on August 20 while he was on his way to school at Dhanora.
“One of the close family friends of victim’s father was the mastermind in the kidnapping episode. They have been sent to jail,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Durg Prakhar Pandey said.
The prime accused, identified as Rajkumar Sahu (31), who lived near the victim’s house was a good friend of Chandrashekhar Sahu – victim’s father, police said.
“Few days back Chandrasekhar had sold his ancestral land for about Rs 1.20 crore. Rajkumar was aware of the fact,” the SP said.
Rukendra Sinha of Somna, his wife Babita Sinha, Hemu Sahu of Dhanora and Kundan of Rajnandgaon too have been arrested in this connection, police said.
Rajkumar had hatched the plan about a month back and Hemu was constantly keeping eye on Maulik’s movement, the SP revealed.
On August 20 Rukendra Sinha along with Rajkumar and Hemu snatched Maulik from the school van at Dhanora. Kundan joined them in between while they were headed towards Rukendra’s house at Somna.
After Kundan joined the party, Rajkumar, left the group and rushed back to Dhanora. The boy was then dropped at Rukendra’s house where his wife Babita was waiting to take care of the abducted child, police revealed.
Chandrashekhar Sahu without knowing that his “friend” was the mastermind behind the kidnapping called Rajkumar to inform about the abduction of his son. Pretending innocent Rajkumar even accompanied Chandrashekhar to Padmnabhpur police outpost to lodge complaint about the abduction.
Police said Rajkumar went to the police outpost to avoid any suspicion and keep tab on the police’s movement.
However, due to deployment of security personnel who sealed all the exit routes, the accused decided to release the child and they dropped him near Somna police station around 1.30 am, police said.
Rajkumar was arrested based on the evidences, CCTV footages and technical inputs received during the course of investigation, police said. During interrogation he spilled the beans which led to the arrest of other accomplices.
