Dimapur police rescues minor boy kidnapped for ransom

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Sep. 13 (EMN): A Dimapur police team rescued a 3-year-old boy from a thatched house located at an isolated location in Monsing Teron village of Assam, in the early hours of Sunday after an intensive search and rescue operation for several hours.

The police have arrested five persons, three from Dimapur and two from Assam in connection with the case.

This was revealed by the deputy commissioner of Police Zone 1, Naieem Mustafa, along with additional commissioner of police, ‘A’ Division Seyiesezo Peseyie, PRO Bharat Laxman Markad and sub-inspector Joseph at a press conference on Monday.

The incident happened in the evening of September 10 when the young boy was playing outside his home in Dimapur. The parents, who were initially not aware of the incident, contacted the police after they could not find their son and subsequent phone call from the kidnappers at around 8 pm on the same day, according to the police.

The police received information from the victim’s father at around 10 pm that his 3-year-old son had been kidnapped by some miscreants and that they had demanded a ransom of INR 15 lakh via a phone call for the safe release of his son.

Following this, the DCP Zone 1 and ACP along with a police team under the supervision of commissioner of police Dimapur, immediately began investigation and started exploring all angles in the case. They obtained CCTV footages from the location the child was kidnapped but since the incident happened at night time, it was difficult to identify the person.

The police also obtained CCTV footages from the adjacent buildings and shops, and minutely examined in order to collect all possible clues. The visual clips hinted at the possibility involvement of someone close to the victim’s family as the child did not hesitate to go with the kidnapper.

However, there was no proof yet and the police had to be extra careful as it was a case where the child’ safety was more important than apprehending the accused.

“All measures were followed to conceal the identity of the police while visiting the P.O and carrying out investigation in order to ensure safety of the kidnapped child,” the police stated. After continuous operation, the police found out that the SIM card and the phone used for calling the parents were all new and recently bought.

After data analysis and ‘technological investigation’, they arrested the persons who procured the mobile phone, SIM cards and made phone calls, and this led to the person who was the mastermind in the kidnapping of the minor boy.

At around 2:30 am and 3 am on September 12, within 30 hours after receiving information about the kidnapping, the child victim was rescued from a small thatched house in an isolated location in Monsing Teron village, situated about 5 km from Khatkhati Highway in Assam.

The police said that the child and one of the accused were sleeping when the police entered the house.

This led to the arrest of five persons namely Dilwar Hussain (21 years), Jiboraj Mech (26 years), Rahul Narzary (24 years), Vikram Singh (21 years), and Md. Yashin Ali (32 years) in connection with the case.

After the successful rescue operation, the police rushed back to the East Police station with the rescued child victim and the arrested accused persons. The child underwent a medical check up and he was found to be unharmed.

“It has been established that the motive of crime was for monetary benefit by way of putting the victim in fear and extracting money from the child victim’s parents,” the police informed. The mastermind of the kidnapping case was Jiboraj Mech, a friend of the victim’s family who lives in the same building.

The police said that Mech behaved normally during the investigation and even accompanied the victim’s family and consoled them but was constantly monitoring the plan while not directly dealing with the kidnappers. But after continuous investigation and operation, clues led to him and subsequently led the police to the hideout of the kidnappers.

It was informed that five accused — three from Dimapur and two from Assam — had been planning the kidnap of the child for seven to 10 days.

The police said that unlike other cases, they could not simply raid the houses of the suspect as their priority was to rescue the child alive. During the progress of the investigation, to ‘buy more time’ for the police, the victim’s family negotiated the ransom with the kidnappers to INR 10 lakh and agreed to handover the amount on September 12 at 10 am.

However, the police rescued the child on September 12 at around 2:30 am.