The four-year-old Pune boy who was abducted by an unidentified motorbike rider near his playschool a week ago, was happily reunited with his parents on Wednesday. News of his abduction had been making ripples on Pune’s WhatsApp groups and social media over the last few days.
Swarnav Chavan, the boy whose photographs went viral on WhatsApp and Facebook groups in Pune, was kidnapped around 10am when he was walking to his playschool on January 11. The son of pathologists Drs Satish Chavan and Prachi Chavan who run a laboratory in Balewadi, Swarnav alias Duggu was last seen in a CCTV grab showing him being borne away by unidentified motorbike rider. The Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad police had launched a massive manhunt for the child based on a missing complaint registered by the Chavan couple with the Chaturshrungi police station in Pune.
“The boy is fine. Though he has been found after eight days, there is no trauma. His parents are doctors and will take care of their son. A paediatrician will also examine him. We understand that many well-wishers took to the social media, but it could have hampered the case further. Hence, we are appealing to the people concerned that the boy is now safely back with his parents and let the police do their work,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (law & order) Ravindra Shisve, Pune Police, adding that further investigations to identify and nab the kidnapper would continue.
According to Senior Police Inspector Dr Vivek Muglikar, in-charge, Wakad police station, “The suspected kidnapper dropped the boy with a security guard of a building near Lotus Business School in Punawale, a Pune suburb close to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and asked him to look after the boy for 10 minutes. When he did not return, the child started crying. The security guard Dadarao Jadhav then found a phone number in the child’s bag and made a video call to the number, which was that of the boy’s father Dr Satish Chavan, who then alerted the police and came to fetch his son at 2.30pm.”
According to sources, there was a lot of hindrance in the investigation when Pune Police found that not all CCTVs in the vicinity of Balewadi, Baner, were operational. During the course of the investigation, they found that the CCTVs at Mitcon, Balewadi High Street, and Radha Chowk were not operational. Finally, with help from their Pimpri-Chinchwad counterparts, they found a trace of the biker and the child on CCTV at Chikli and Nigdi. Police suspect that the massive search operations for the boy and the constant buzz on social media, with people posting messages praying for his return may have forced the suspected kidnapper to release the child.
Police sources remained tight-lipped about whether ransom had been demanded from the doctor couple, saying further investigation was ongoing. The Chavans remained unavailable for comment.
