Cops’ swift action saves abducted kid within hours

The police also secured the suspect when he returned to the railway station in the evening, apparently to ‘take stock of the situation’.

The police said that the suspect, OB Reddy (39) of Odisha, abandoned the child Somnath at Tiruporur bus terminus fearing that he could be nabbed by the police. The child was rescued by passers-by who handed over to Childline volunteers, who in turn admitted the child at a government home in Chengalpattu.

“We received information from Childline that a child has been traced and the identities of Somnath matched with him. We took the parents to the home and after they confirmed that it was their child, the boy was reunited with them by the Child Welfare Committee,” said an inspector.

Meanwhile, Reddy returned to Central railway station to find out whether police were still looking out for him. The police personnel there secured him on suspicion. Though he denied kidnapping the child, they matched his identity with the CCTV footage retrieved from the station premises.

The police inquiring Reddy why he kidnapped the child and he will be remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday.

Somnath, son of the couple Ram Singh and Neelavathi Celliwada of Nabarangpur district in Odisha, went missing from MGR Chennai Central around midnight on Sunday.

The couple, who were working as construction labourers in the city, wanted to look for work at some construction sites and reached the railway station around 11 pm on Sunday to take rest at the waiting hall for the night before meeting the contractors the next day.

It was around 2 am that Neelavathi realised her son was missing. The couple raised analarm and on information railway police conducted inquiries with them.

When the CCTV footage at the station premises were combed, police found out that a man lifted the child and boarded the last train to Tambaram from the Park railway station.