East Delhi couple held for kidnapping 5-year-old

New Delhi: An East Delhi-based couple are in jail after kidnapping a five-year-old minor, from their neighbourhood. The police, in a swift action, cracked the case within  a day after the boy was kidnapped from New Seemapuri on Friday evening. The arrested have been identified as Asadul Islam, 36 and his wife Riksona.

They were arrested from Surya Nagar on Saturday evening. According to the police, the kidnapping came to light on Friday when the mother of the minor approached the jurisdictional police station and lodged a kidnapping complaint. On Saturday morning, the kidnappers made a ransom call and demanded Rs 8 lakh to release the child. 

The complainant immediately informed the police. “Islam had also threatened her that the boy will be killed if she approached the police,” said deputy commissioner of police Nupur Prasad.

The officer said the ransom deal was settled at Rs 3 lakh and Islam told the woman to hire an autorickshaw and convey the driver’s phone number to him so that he could directly brief him about the location where the money was to be delivered. A constable posing as an autorickshaw driver went along with the woman. 

After the money was placed at the Apsara border bridge in East Delhi, Islam came to collect it but was arrested, the officer said. The DCP said the boy was rescued from the house of a cousin of Islam’s wife in Tahir Pur. 

The couple had told her cousin that the boy’s mother had gone out and had asked them to look after him for a day, the officer said, adding that Islam planned the crime because he was facing a financial crisis.