PATNA: In a gory reminder of the nightmarish days when kidnapping for ransom was a regular affair till the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government came to power about four years ago, motorcycle-borne criminals abducted a six-yearold child from the heart of the state capital on Monday morning.
A Std I student of Christ Church School, Shreshth Sanjay was on his way to school, located at one end of the Gandhi Maidan, when two armed criminals intercepted the autorickshaw he was travelling in along with other children. Threatening the driver with dire consequences if he raised an alarm, the goons pulled Shreshth out of the vehicle and sped away. This was around 7 am.
Overcoming the shock, the auto driver informed a police patrol about the incident. The school authorities later informed Shreshth’s father,who works at a small private firm. It could not be immediately known whether the criminals later shifted to a fourwheeler to escape. If not, it would probably be the first incident in Bihar in which a kidnap victim was taken away on a mobike in full public view.
Panic gripped the city when TV channels broke the news and parents rushed to their children’s schools and this was not without reason. For, even though crime has been contained and criminals have been reined in during the Nitish regime, police have failed to rescue Akash, a Class VII student of a DAV school, who was kidnapped from the posh Bailey Road here two years ago.
Police, meanwhile, have launched a massive combing operation. All exit points of the city were sealed. Apparently on getting some clues, they raided a private hostel of college students but to no avail.
ADG (HQ) Neelmani announced “adequate rewards” for anyone who could give clues about the kidnapped boy. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, said: “Police are looking at this incident from various angles, including the timing of the abduction.” Could there be some other motive, apart from ransom, behind the kidnapping, he said: “This angle will also be probed. But the immediate priority is to rescue the child.”
Leader of the Opposition and former chief minister Rabri Devi said: “Nitish Kumar’s oft-repeated remark that law would take its own course has become a joke. This abduction has negated his statement that the rule of law has been established in Bihar.”
source: TOI