Kidnapped schoolboy escapes while waiting at traffic signal

CHENNAI: A 12-year-old schoolboy who was allegedly kidnapped by an unidentified gang in an auto rickshaw on Wednesday near his school in Kilpauk escaped from his abductors. The boy got down from the vehicle while the vehicle was waiting at a signal near Pachaiyappa’s College Metro Station.

The Kilpauk police identified the boy as Mithilesh Kumar Sharma, a Class 7 student at a private school there. Police said that on Wednesday afternoon as he was waiting for his auto driver outside his school to be picked up, a group of men kidnapped him in an auto rickshaw and sped away from the scene.

As the auto was waiting at a signal near Pachaiyappa’s College Metro Station, the boy managed to give a slip to his abductors and escaped from his abductors. The boy went straight inside the Metro station and told the police there about the incident.

Mithilesh, along with the police, later went to Chennai Central Railway Station and was handed over to the railway police there. His parents were then informed, who rushed to Central and then the boy was safely handed over to them.

The boy’s father Aravind Sharma lodged a police complaint and an investigation was started. The police are now trying to verify the boy’s story and identify the abductors with the help of CCTV footage from the school vicinity to identify the abductors.