Three days on, no trace of youths who took away child in Mohali

Mohali, August 27

Three days after two bike-borne youths fraudulently took away a one-year-old boy from the hands of his grandmother on the Airport Road near City Centre here, the police is yet to identify the culprits.

A case was registered against the suspects under Sections 363, 365 and 120B of the IPC at the Sohana police station on August 24 and since then, grandmother Manju Devi, victim’s father Munna Paswan, his wife and four children, have not eaten properly.

The police said it looked like a case of child stealing rather than kidnapping as there has been no ransom call till now.

The duo suspected to be from Bihar, came on a bike around 7:30 pm on Tuesday and asked Manju Devi, who runs a roadside tea stall, for two cups of tea, the police said.

The old woman initially refused as she had no milk, but the duo insisted, the police said, adding that while the woman was busy preparing tea, one of the suspects remained seated on the bike with ignition on.

After finishing the tea, the other suspect asked the old woman to hand him over the child in her lap as he wanted to play with him. While the woman got busy with her work, the duo slipped away with the child, they said. It was the toddler’s brother and sister who alarmed the old woman about the incident.

The CCTV footage collected from the nearby houses shows the duo wearing helmet escaping the scene with a child tucked in between.

Sohana SHO Bhagwant Singh said, ‘’Teams have been formed to solve the case. Mobile dump data from the area is being scanned. There has been no ransom call yet. The kid’s parents eke out a living by working as labourers. The old woman runs a tea stall near the road.”

“The suspects took advantage of the secluded area and took the youngest child in the group of six playing at the site so that the child does not raise an alarm. The child is just one-year-old and barely able to walk,” said the SHO.

The police said one of the suspects might have come to the tea stall before to do a recce. — TNS