Staff Reporter
In a swift operation, the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Nagpur Rural Police successfully rescued a 12-year-old boy from the clutches of kidnappers in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. The dramatic rescue took place after a police raid on a house in Chhindwara, where the accused were holding the boy hostage, police said. The arrested accused have been identified as Pravin alias Sonu Hariram Padangre (35), Geeta Guruprasad Kaurati (28), and an eight-year-old daughter of Geeta, all residents of Kali Chhapar No 2 village in Damoh tehsil of Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. Pravin has a criminal history with eight offences against him, including murder, dacoity, robbery, and theft. He had been in a live-in relationship with Geeta, who previously ran a liquor den in Madhya Pradesh. According to police, the boy is the nephew of Keshav Shriram Arya (70), a resident of Plot No 20, Subodh Nagar, Nagpur. He was involved in contract farming on a 50 acre land located in Kalmeshwar tehsil, where the accused got employment at salary of Rs 14,000/- per month.
Pravin and Geeta were working in the farm for the past eight months and staying in the hut constructed on the farm. Arya’s sister-in-law and her son came for a stay at the farm for Diwali vacation. On November 18, a dispute arose between Arya and Pravin over payment of salaries of the past eight months. As Arya refused to release the salary immediately, Pravin and Geeta hatched a conspiracy. They assaulted Arya and tied his hands on the night of November 18. The accused took away the 12-year-old son, along with a motorcycle of a farmer and Rs 25,000/- from the house.
The duo left the motorcycle at Saoner and boarded a passenger train in the morning. After alighting the train at Chhindwara, the duo kept the boy at the house of his friend and moved to Kali Chhapar village. After registering the case under Section 363 of Indian Penal Code, the LCB teams dispatched to Madhya Pradesh on the hunt. However, the cops faced tremendous difficulties as complainant Arya was not having exact names and addresses of the accused. Using technical surveillance, the police received the location of the accused and arrested him. Subsequently, the police rescued the boy and reunited with the mother.
The official said that mother of Pravin was admitted at a hospital in Nagpur. Acting on the information, the police searched the hosptial and identified the mother. Pravin’s relatives told the police that he was not having any contact with them since he married to Geeta. However, Pravin contacted his sister which helped the police to trace his location through the mobile number which resulted into his arrest. Under the guidance of Superintendent of Police (SP) Harssh Poddar, Addl SP Dr Sandip Pakhale, SDPO Saoner Bapu Rohom, the arrest was made by PI LCB Omprakash Kokate, API Rajiv Karmalwar, Ashish Thakur, PSI Battulal Pande, ASI Suraj Parmar, Dinesh Adhapure, Nilesh Barwe, Sanjay Bante, Iqbal Sheikh, Vinod Kale, Pramod Tabhane, Amol Kuthe, Mukesh Shukla, Satish Rathod, Sumeet Bangde and others.