Thane: The Thane crime branch unit 1 has reunited a seven-year-old boy with his parents on Tuesday. The minor boy went missing on Saturday while playing outside his Kalwa residence. The boy allegedly claims to have been kidnapped. He was found in Nehru Nagar, Kurla. The police on the statement of the minor have detained and are questioning few people to investigate the case.
The police said according to the statement given by Motibai Ramesh Rathod, 35, the complainant and mother of the boy, her son was playing outside their residences at Jaibhim Nagar number 2, Mahatma Phule Nagar, near MIDC pipeline, Kalwa, Thane. It was on June 20, he left house at 9 am and didn't return back till 4 pm, alerting the parents to search him. With no hopes to trace her son, she approached the Kalwa police station and informed about her son's missing. The Kalwa police took it seriously and registered a kidnapping case under section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian penal code and started the investigation.
The Thane crime branch sleuths too started parallelly investigating the matter. Yogesh Kakad, assistant police inspector, of Thane crime unit 1 circulated the photo of the child on social networking sites and among his informants. "One of his informants confirmed about the child being found in Nehru Nagar. Kakad along with the team and the child's mother reached Nehru nagar and identified the child on Monday. We reunited the child with the parents on Tuesday. The minor claims that he was made to sit in an auto-rickshaw by a neighbour. We had detained the neighbour who denies such allegation. We handed over the suspect to Kalwa police who are investigating the matter further," said Krishna Kokani, senior police inspector, Unit 1 of Thane crime branch.
The police are further scrutinizing the CCTV footage of the area. Also, they are checking the call data record (CDR) and location to collect evidence against the suspect. "We detained him as per the statement of the child, who had identified him. The child would not lie so investigation is going accordingly," said a police officer.
