Kidnapped boy rescued, couple held

A five-year-old boy kidnapped from east Delhi has been rescued and a couple living in the neighbourhood arrested for the crime, police said on Sunday.

Police said Asadul Islam and his wife Riksona kidnapped the boy on Friday from Seemapuri area and were demanding Rs 8 lakh from his mother to release him.

They were arrested from Surya Nagar on Saturday evening when Islam was in contact with the boy's mother to tell her about the location where the ransom amount was to be delivered, Deputy Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad said.

The woman had filed a police complaint on Friday evening about the kidnapping.

"Police investigation revealed that a ransom call was made by the kidnapper -- later identified as Islam -- to the woman about his demand for Rs 8 lakh to free the boy. Islam also threatened her that the boy will be killed if she approached police," Prasad said.

The officer said the ransom deal was settled at Rs 3 lakh and Islam told the woman to hire an auto-rickshaw and convey the driver's phone number to him so that he could directly brief him about the location where the money was to be delivered.

A constable posing as auto-rickshaw driver went along with the woman. After the money was placed at the Apsara border bridge in east Delhi, Islam came to collect it but was arrested, the officer said.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police said the boy was rescued from the house of a cousin of Islam's wife in Tahir Pur.

The couple had told her cousin that the boy's mother had gone out and had asked them to look after him for a day, the officer said, adding that Islam planned the crime because he was facing a financial crisis.

--IANS

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