Bhubaneswar: A 25-year-old marble setter from Odisha’s Kandhamal district, working in Bengaluru, was arrested in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday for allegedly kidnapping a four-year-old boy.
The accused has been identified as Abhisek Digal.
According to police sources, the boy, who was kidnapped from Bhoi Sahi in Saheed Nagar on Tuesday., was safely rescued and reunited with his family after police, acting on the mother’s complaint, tracked the accused to a slum using local networks within 3 hours.
Digal picked the boy at 10.30 am on Tuesday while he was playing with his elder brother in front of their house. The woman then tried to contact him, but he continued to mislead her and later switched off his mobile phone. After waiting for hours, she along with her husband then lodged a complaint with police.
Speaking to the media, Commissioner of Police S Dev Datta Singh said that rescuing the child was their top priority. “The Commissionerate Police immediately activated its human and equipment assets. There was a strict vigil on all roads in the city. We also activated our basti (slum) networks and succeeded in tracing the kidnapper to a slum within 3 hours. The child was later safely rescued,” he said.
The CP further stated that the kidnapper was known to the family. “This kidnapping was neither for ransom nor for organ trafficking but to compel the family into doing something,” he said, refusing to divulge further to protect the family’s privacy.
The woman had previously met Digal in Bengaluru while staying with her sister during a period of marital issues before reconciling with her husband, the sources said.
