Missing boy traced to Khurda, kidnapper nabbed

CUTTACK: The police on Tuesday rescued 11-year-old Abdul Rehman, who was kidnapped by neighbour and family acquaintance Badal alias Sk Zulfiquer on Sunday night, from  Sradhapur village near Khurda town. Badal has also been nabbed.According to police sources, Badal had taken Abdul to Sradhapur and had confined him to a thatched house in a cashew plantation near the village. He had allegedly demanded ` 12 lakh ransom from Abdul’s father Ehsan-ul Haq to release the child.The call was traced to Khurda and investigation into the antecedents and origin of Badal led police to the region and the boy was rescued. Badal had also taken a house on rent at Khurda and had shifted his wife there recently, which had led investigators to believe that he had been planning the kidnap for sometime now. He was quite well acquainted with the Haq family being their neighbour at Nimasahi and used to run errands and do odd jobs for them.Haq was working in Dubai for more than 20 years and had returned to Cuttack a year or so back. Badal believed that he had accumulated a lot of wealth in Dubai and thus had ventured to kidnap Abdul, who was studying in a posh school here.On Sunday evening, the rickshaw by which Abdul usually went for tuition at Friends Colony did not turn up and Badal was asked by Haq’s family members to drop him there. He also went to pick him from tuition classes at around 10. But instead of bringing him home, he took him to Khurda on his motorcycle, sources said.The boy has been handed over to the father. He has not been harmed. Investigations are on to get to the roots of the crime and determine if Badal operated on his own or was a part of a kidnapping racket, sources said.