Kidnapped boy set free, restored to parents

CHENNAI: The seventh standard student, who was kidnapped by a gang while he was on his way to the school near Padi, yesterday morning, has been rescued late last night. Police sources said the gang had dropped the boy near Neelankarai on the ECR on the outskirts of the city at around 2300 hrs last night, after holding him hostage for almost the whole day. The gang, sensing that police had zeroed in on them, dropped him at the ECR road. Two members of the gang, who had come to drop him, were secured by the police for interrogation. The seventh standard Yogeswaran, a student of Leo Matriculation Higher Secondary school near Tirumangalam, was on his way to his school along with his brother Jayasuriya, when he was abducted by the gang in the car. The gang had dropped the boy at a time when special teams, formed by the police on a complaint from his father Rajnikanth, were pursuing various clues to trace the boy. Police suspect it as a case of a mistaken identity as the gang had come to Rajnikanth’s house yesterday morning looking for his brother Niranjan Kumar, who had heavily borrowed outside for his real estate business and could not repay the amount. Niranjan was staying with his brother in a joint family. The gang had come to his house get back the Rs two Lakh which they had given as loan to Niranjan. When they were waiting to meet him, Rajnikanth’s mother came out with Yogeswaran and Jayasuriya to see them off to school, when the gang kidnapped Yogeswaran thinking that he was the son of Niranjan. Senior offi cials lauded the special team for tracing the boy within 24 hours of the kidnapping. However, one version said that the gang had taken the boy to Kumbakonam and sensing that police were trailing them, they alighted at Puducherry and put the boy in a Chennai-bound bus. During routine vehicle checks at Akkarai check post on the ECR, police found the boy and handed him over to his parents today.