Mom stages kidnap drama of Lankan refugee

SALEM: Suspense over the alleged kidnap of a 13-year-old boy from a Sri Lankan refugee camp in Thammampatti ended on Wednesday with his mother admitting to having enacted a drama to put creditors in the dock.The boy’s father Nathan (32) was arrested a few ago when he tried to go return to Sri Lanka in an illegal ferry and was lodged in the Madurai prison. His wife Zareen went to Madurai with Vikneen, the ‘kidnapped’ boy, to get him out on bail. Later, Zareen lodged a complaint with the Thammampatti Police saying that Vikneen went missing after she sent him alone to the camp from Madurai. On Saturday, Zareen told police that she received an anonymous call demanding a ransom of `2 lakh to get her son back. When she returned to Thammampatti four persons in motorcycles came to her house in the camp on Tuesday. At that time, Zareen told her neighbours that it was these four men who threatened her for getting ransom. Soon, the neighbours and Zareen handed over all the four to the police.Police, however, did not believe Zareen’s claim that the kidnappers had directly come to collect the ransom. On interrogation, they came to know that the men were Tamil refugees from Karur camp. They were identified as Vigneswaran (35), Rajaratinam (30), Jayaraj (31) and Ashok Kumar (28).As police turned suspicious, Zareen on Wednesday said that Vikneen had returned and added that he was dropped at the Naickenpatti bus stop blindfolded.Growing more curious, police interrogated Vikneen who said his mother made him stay incognito. When Zareen was questioned she admitted that the kidnap drama was enacted to get some respite from creditors.