Jharkhand: 4-yr-old boy abducted, sold at Rs 2.95 lakh, rescued

Hazaribag: A four-year-old boy, who was abducted from Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district and sold at Rs 2.95 lakh to a couple in Koderma district, was rescued after a week, police said on Tuesday.

Six persons involved in the crime were arrested, the police said.

Sadar Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Mahesh Prajapati said, "The boy was abducted from Okni locality in Hazaribag on December 18 and he was rescued from Koderma on December 25. Six persons involved in the abduction were arrested.

He said that six mobile phones and the cloth sheet, which was used to abduct the boy, were also recovered from them.

The boy had been sold to a couple - Geeta Devi and Rohit Ravidas - in the Indrapuri locality of Koderma district at Rs 2.95 lakh, he said.

The couple allegedly wanted a child to carry on the family dynasty, he said.

One Jyoti Kumari and Kanhiya Kumar came to know about their willingness and told the couple that they knew an NGO that helps in adoption, another police official said.

This way a deal at Rs 2.95 lakh was finalised between them. The couple gave them Rs 1.7 lakh in advance, he said.

Jyoti and Kanhiya then contacted one Nutan Devi, who lived in the locality of the abducted boy, for the task. Nutan involved one Kareena Devi for keeping a vigil on the boy, the police officer said.

On December 18, Nutan abducted the boy and handed over the boy to Jyoti and Kanhiya. Then, they gave the boy to the Koderma-based couple and took their remaining amount of Rs 1.25 lakh.

After finding no trace of their son, the parents lodged a complaint with the Lohsinghna police station in Hazaribag. Based on the complaint, a special investigation team (SIT) was formed at the direction of Hazaribag SP Manoj Ratan Chothe.

The police accessed the CCTV footage of the locality and based on this Kareena Devi was arrested. On her information, other members of the crime were also arrested, police said.