Gonda (Madhya Pradesh): A six-year-old grandson of a trader was rescued and four people who allegedly abducted him were arrested after an encounter in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district on Saturday, officials said.
Some persons, allegedly carrying identity cards of the Health Department, had come to a locality in Colonelganj on Friday afternoon on the pretext of distributing masks, according to police.
The grandson of gutkha trader Rajesh Kumar Gupta was standing at a distance when the suspects approached him to give hand sanitiser and pulled him inside the vehicle. Later, the family got a call from a woman for a ransom Rs 4 crore, a police official said.
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In a joint operation, the special task force (STF) and the police rescued the child and arrested four kidnappers following an encounter, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said.
The car used for kidnapping and three weapons have also been recovered, Awasthi said, adding that two of the abductors had also suffered injuries during the encounter.
Additional Superintendent of Police Mahendra Kumar said on the complaint lodged by Hari Gupta, father of the six-year-old boy, a case was registered after which and police teams launched a search operation to trace the child.
A reward of Rs 2 lakh has been declared for the joint team of the STF and police, which successfully carried out the operation, the official added.
Earlier, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a tweet in Hindi, said if the BJP government cannot protect the children of the state, then it has no right to stay in power.
PTI report
