M A I N   N E W S

18-month-old abducted in Delhi, found in Orissa
Tribune News Service and Agencies

Rourkela/New Delhi, February 5
Eighteen-month-old Arpit Dewan was today rescued from the clutches of his maid, a tribal, who had kidnapped him from his New Delhi residence five days ago, after she was recognised by a passerby from posters put up at Rangpur town in Orissa’s Sundergarh district.

Sabitri Minz, who had left New Delhi with Arpit last Monday with the police in her pursuit, surfaced in Rajgangpur, about 40 km from Rourkela, with the baby this morning, the police said.

It was actually a local resident who first spotted the woman and the baby boy outside a telephone booth near a bus stop and informed the police, the sources said.

Posters of the tribal woman had been splashed in the town by the police asking the people to provide information about her.

She was formally arrested later and produced before a local court where the New Delhi police sought custody of the woman and the child. Both of them were also medically examined at the government hospital at Rajgangpur.

The search for the missing child involved 25 search teams and policemen from Delhi and Orissa.

Talking to the media in Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Praveer Ranjan said “The child is in good health and will be reaching home soon”. During interrogation Savitri disclosed that she boarded the Neelanchal Express from Delhi on February 3 at 4 pm and reached Sundergarh this morning. Till then, she had been in Delhi roaming from one place to another. She even worked as a labourer at a camp near the New Delhi Railway Station.

“She evaded the police by covering the child with her shawl and travelling by changing from one bus to another all over the city,” Ranjan said.

Savitri said she did it for money. She had searched the house but could lay her hands only on a couple of hundred rupees and took the child with her as she had got emotionally attached to him and could not leave him. Ranjan said once the maid arrives in Delhi, the police would question her about the involvement of others in the kidnapping case. Savitri, who came to Delhi in June, 2003, hails from Rajganjpur village in Sundergarh district of Orissa.

The child’s mother, Bharti Dewan said she was happy that her prayers had been answered and would not press for charges against the maid. “However, the police are free to do what they feel. I am happy that I have got my child safe and sound.”

Bharti also said that the family had not received any ransom calls. The police verification of the maid, who had been hired on January 21, had not been done as the hiring agency “Vineeta Placement Agency” had not got her photographs and details ready, she added.

Bharti works as an NGO in Chittaranjan Park and her husband Arvind Dewan, is a software engineer in Gurgaon. They have two sons, Arpit and Ayush (4). Ranjan said the child was taken away by Savitri on the afternoon of January 31 from the Dewan’s home and the parents came to know about it at about 2 pm following a call from their neighbours that their elder son was waiting outside after coming from school as the doors were locked.

He also said that with the involvement of 25 teams in the whole operation along with the cooperation of the Orissa police, it was possible for them to recover the child.

“The investigations speeded up after our team reached Rajganjpur village and camped there in the hope of the maid turning up there,” he added.

Ranjan said they expected the maidservant to take the Utkal Express which leaves Delhi at 1.30 pm and sent a team by flight to Bilaspur where the train stopped for some time, but she could not be located. “Later, help of the Orissa Police, we began search and questioning of the maid’s family,” he said.

Engineer goes missing

Patna, February 5
In yet another case of suspected kidnapping in Bihar, computer engineer Prabhakar Kumar Sinha went missing from his residence here. Sinha had left his Kidwaipuri residence on Wednesday and had not returned since then, SP N.H. Khan told PTI tonight. Sinha’s relatives had complained that they had received a call from the kidnappers to pay a ransom of Rs 25 lakh. An FIR had been registered. — PTI